I think it'll pick up as I get into more of a routine.

"That makes sense. I should, um, let you go then. See you tonight." 

See you!

She waves bye and goes looking for Tran.

Tran isn't anywhere apparent in the grounds, but a check with her subtle arts indicates that he's inside one of the central buildings, not one that she's visited before. 

Into the building she goes.

There's a corridor, and then a door in the direction of Tran's mind, and: it seems to be a library! 

It's not particularly impressive by the standards of an industrialized world, but it does have probably a couple thousand books, leather-bound copies arranged on shelves. There's another door, closed, and a clerk in a blue uniform sitting at a desk near it, reading. According to Bella's subtle arts, Tran is probably on the other side of that door. 

"Hello?" the clerk says, giving Bella a suspicious look. "What are you doing here?" 

She points. "Tran?"

The woman frowns, but she seems more confused than worried now. "Just a moment, please." She gets up, opens the door just enough to slip through, and is back thirty seconds later, Tran on her heels. 

"Bella!" He grins brightly at her. "How is everything? I haven't seen you much." 

Everything's going okay! I wanted to do an experiment with Mindspeech; if it works you'll be able to distribute relay work more.

"Huh! That would certainly be useful, I'm really curious how you think it would work. Er, one second, let me just put away the thing I was working on." 

He darts back, affording her a glance at the room he was in; it's a smaller space and seems to be some kind of archive, fully of dusty boxes, and a table with some papers splayed out on it. Tran quickly sorts them and returns them to their box, which he places back on a shelf, and then slips out and locks it behind him. "So? What's the experiment?" 

She takes off her earcuff. This is a magic item I invented to let people talk to their friends on another continent. It works by closing distance for purposes of telepathic range limits. It works for me, and it works for Elves, who aren't the same as me; it might work for you too. It can reach about three hundred miles. I can't give it to you, because I need it for reference for a version that will work across planes so I can contact my friends, but I can lend it to you most of most days.

"Huh!" He looks hesitantly at it, then holds out his hand. "How will I tell if it's working – should I just try for someone who I know is out of my usual range?" 

You have to wear it, and then to activate it you do - This mental action! It draws down user mana, so you'll be able to use it for a couple hours, but then you can give it to someone else who can also do that, every day. And yeah, trying someone out of range seems simplest.

Tran takes the earcuff and puts it on, and then closes his eyes and presumably does the relevant mental motion. He's quiet for a while, then opens his eyes and gives her an incredulous, delighted look. "It works! I just reached Herald Nina, she's all the way at the southeastern border. She couldn't believe it - thought I must've been redeployed on circuit." 

Oh good! If it works for you it should work for anybody who has Mindspeech at all.

"And it'll give everyone a three hundred mile range? That's amazing!" 

Yeah! I invented it because a lot of Elves on the continent where I was living had left friends behind when they moved to that continent and wanted to catch up.

Tran beams at her. "You're such a useful person to know." 

I try!

"Er, do you need it back for now? Also is there anything else you wanted to ask me about?" 

I do not need it back right now. If you keep it in the room where I saw you doing relay before I can go there for anything I need to do which requires it.

"That works fine for me! Although, should we keep it in a locked drawer or something? If it's that important and there's only one. I guess we can also be more careful about locking the room when it's not in use and I can give you a key." 

If you have the kind of lock where it can be opened from the other side without a key, you don't need to give me a key. But yes, it should be kept safe. I can take it back when you're not using it, I don't know what hours the relay's usually operating - or what hours it will be operating if you can use any mindspeaker.

"That's something we need to think about! Normally it's twice a day, about a candlemark right after dawn and a quick pass right before sunset. But I should tell Lancir about this and he might want to do another one at noon. Oh and then sometimes there are urgent messages, but I assume if you were using it, either I could just do it unassisted or I could find you and ask to borrow it back."

He frowns. "I don't think we have that kind of lock, it sounds really useful though! Here, you can take my key, I've got a spare in my room." He digs around, produces a ring of multiple keys, and unhooks one. "There you go."