That actually gets a chuckle. "I guess so. I'll, er, see you in the afternoon then?" 

See you!

Vanyel takes his envelope and leaves, looking, if not exactly cheerful, at least faintly satisfied with himself. 

Bella has her breakfast, then goes for a walk outside in the hopes that someone will decide she's interesting, start a conversation, and agree to teach her the alphabet. She brings paper in the hopes of achieving step three.

The first “people” to find her are a trio of Companion foals. They think she’s very interesting! Unfortunately, if they can talk to her they don’t try, and they don’t have hands so aren’t going to be of much help with the alphabet.

Well, the foals are cute, and she will let them nose her, and while she does say hello she doesn't push if they don't care to chat (or aren't old enough yet? she doesn't know how the species ages).

The next person to find her is a curly-haired girl of about sixteen, wearing green robes of a paler shade than the usual Healers' colour. She's trudging along the path looking very tired, but her face lights up when she sees Bella. 

"Oh! Good morning! I saw you last night with Gemma, you're the one from another plane who can block pain! How do you do that?" She bounces on her toes. "I'm Shavri by the way." 

Um, I can't actually fix damage but pain is an experience, or a sense, and I can cut it off temporarily. I learned it in school.

"That's so interesting! Are you going to be in the House of Healing more? I want to watch you do it with Healing Sight and see if I can figure out how it works!" She stops, looks a little embarrassed. "Um, anyway, sorry if I interrupted. What were you doing out here?" 

I'll probably be there some afternoons, I can build up more stamina with practice so I like to use up what I've got, or nearly. I don't mind you watching. I'm hoping I'll find someone to teach me the alphabet, will you?

"Oh! I could help you with that, I like teaching people things! I guess you don't know how to read here because you're from somewhere else, obviously. Um, how is it that you're talking to me if you don't know the language?" 

My version of mindspeech doesn't rely on shared language but if I'm here for the foreseeable future I should pick it up.

"That's really interesting, Mindspeech here isn't like that at all – um, some Mindspeakers can teach you a language all at once, just put it all in your head. it's a trick the Tayledras have, my friend Van told me about it – he was visiting there a few years ago. Savil might be able to do it for Valdemaran, I think just the language itself and not the alphabet – oh, actually, the other person has to be a strong Mindspeaker too and I'm not sure whether what you have would work for it." 

Huh! That's worth asking, at least. I can't do that.

"That makes sense. I think Savil is usually busy during the day but she might be free tonight. Have you met her? Ooh, I should introduce you to Van, he's my best friend and he would think you're so interesting." 

I actually had dinner with both of them the other night.

"Oh. Good." Shavri grins. "Do you want me to teach you the alphabet then? Um, I just finished night shift but I'm back on days next week so I want to try to stay up most of today, teaching you would be a good way to pass the time." 

Yes please!

"Do you have pen or paper? I don't have any on me." 

Bella produces both.

Shavri will show her the alphabet! It's not too hard – Valdemaran is very phonetic. Shavri is a pretty good teacher, as well, maybe just because she's so delighted by the process. 

Bella makes a chart with every Valdemaran letter corresponding to some Draconic character or tengwa, sometimes both. She attempts to spell people's names and the words she's picked up.

Shavri corrects some of them, but Bella is very soon getting it right three-quarters of the time, either because it's a straightforward language or because she's a fast learner.

"I'm hungry," Shavri announces when it's been a few hours. "Want to go get lunch?" 

Sure, thanks!

Shavri can take her to the dining hall! It's one that's mostly used by Heralds, but the off-duty Healers can go there as well. Shavri seems to know a lot of people; she waves and announces names back and forth and delightedly hugs a few people who she seems especially friendly with. She does all of it very fast. Shavri doesn't seem to be a person who knows how to do anything slowly. 

Again, there's a sideboard table with various sorts of food on it. Shavri loads up a plate.