So the Cantata is like Sasha, then: everything they know about who they are comes from their nurses' stories.
"Remi will want to know more about teaching mothlings to fly. But let's go back to my original question. I think Alaric and I can build a machine that you could use to remove the harness from another moth. Is this something you are willing to try? It's going to be awkward and unpleasant." Sasha feels uneasy about letting Ione run a couple of tests on her, and here she is volunteering to teach an alien to do telepresence surgery. "But I think it's important. And I think it's something you and the other moths should control, for yourselves."
Re: literal manipulators - paging Alaric and the Cantata
"Remi will want to know more about teaching mothlings to fly. But let's go back to my original question. I think Alaric and I can build a machine that you could use to remove the harness from another moth. Is this something you are willing to try? It's going to be awkward and unpleasant." Sasha feels uneasy about letting Ione run a couple of tests on her, and here she is volunteering to teach an alien to do telepresence surgery. "But I think it's important. And I think it's something you and the other moths should control, for yourselves."