Ciaran was lucky, he hadn't gone too far, and only needed a night's worth of rest to recover.
He had to explain to Diana what he had done though. When he woke up he found himself sleeping on her lap, as she was monitoring his breathing.
The girl first made sure he was alright before she gave him a smack on the back of his head.
"What did I tell you about unnecessary risks Rony? What did you do this time; your soul was running on fumes when I caught you?"
Diana was less and less inclined to ever leave the boy out of her sight. If he was this careless with his life when he was with her, she didn't want to even think about what he would do when he was alone.
"I wanted to see how runes worked. It turns out they are a door for the world's mana to fuel and interact with our own. Wind runes written with my mana summon wind mana. The 'fly' rune further simplifies the process. It gives the Wind the 'intent' to make me fly. The intent comes from the meaning of the rune, and it knows it's mine because it was. written with my mana."
"Now, for example, you don't physically write your own runes anymore. You said they are carved onto your soul. And yet, I believe that is inaccurate, they aren't carved there, they are tattooed there by your own mana. The moment you learn how to infuse your own intent into the spells and stop relying on Dyrta's you won't need the runes anymore."
The boy was excitedly explaining to her his new discovery, and for once she understood him. She could follow his concepts, and as she listened on she found his hypothesis about the nature of runes to be very plausible.
In the Academy, the teachers never told them where runes came from or how they were created. They didn't go in-depth with how they worked either. Hell, most probably didn't even know as much as Ciaran did.
And there was also the fact that knowledge did nothing. Their souls were too weak to interact with elements, and their reserves of mana wouldn't allow them to dive deeper into the research.
Unless someone was genuinely as suicidal as the boy, they would never try and push for results. Sadly for Diana, she was already influenced by the madman she called a partner.
Ciaran has already recovered, so she instructed him, to keep watch and stop her if she was going too far. Then she wrote the tiniest rune she could. She used 'glow' as it would allow Ciaran to be able to observe as well.
She followed his instructions and she asked the moonlight to explain to her how the rune worked. Unexpectedly, her element was resisting.
"I think it's pissed at you for using it as a tool for so long. Try apologizing, and be sincere." The boy told her with worry in his voice.
If anyone had told her a year ago, that she would be partnered up with a nine-year-old, and that he would honestly worry about her friendship with her element, she would have made sure the poor soul would receive the proper professional medical treatment.
But now here she was, apologizing to her moonlight for her own ignorance. And here she was, feeling it working. The moonlight shined around her. Unlike Ciaran's Wind, her light did not make a sphere, but a bright being of light.
She made sure to only take a glimpse, and she cut off the connection, but even that left her breathless.
She panted as she fell to her knees. She was much stronger than Ciaran physically, but when it came to comparing their souls, they were about the same.
After experiencing what a true connection with an element was like she understood why the boy called runes nothing but toys. Just a touch of the real deal was so much stronger than rune magic. Just a glimpse of the truth was enough to drive her mad with desire.
She now understood why all the people who didn't use runes while being Apprentices were considered mad, it was because they were. No sane person would ever attempt to learn this way, but only a true idiot would ignore it after they had tasted the power ones.
"So, are you going to help me, or are you putting my research on hold?" The Devil asked, and as with all of his deals, this one could not be refused either.
But just because she had lost her mind, and would aid him in their madness, did not mean they would be impractical about it. She made a schedule, a proper one. Every week only one of them was allowed to practice rune reading, while the other kept watch. And even then, they would start with one day for each attempt.
Ciaran protested the restrictions, but after a few bumps on the head, and a promise to help him with his martial arts, he gave in to the Tyrant.
"You asked me what I want to do, right. Well, I don't know Rony, I really don't. Look down on me if you must, but I just want to be happy, and to me, it seems that the only way to achieve that is by obtaining the power to bulldoze through everything that stands in my way." She said, right before they went to bed.
He just smiled.
"I know a lot of people who can't even admit to that Diana. I look down on fools who live their life on autopilot, and you just told me you aren't one of them." He said, and it brought relief to the girl her partner acknowledge her goal, however simple it may have been.
For the next three months, their lives revolved around a routine. They woke up, they hunted, and they trained. Diana made virtually no progress on her Martial Rank, but that was normal. She was only fighting opponents vastly under her level, and educating Ciaran on how to fight properly as a ranker.
Her magic however had progressed by leaps and bounds. Since she had crossed into Rank Three, she very rarely used it, and it had stagnated. Now that she found out how to properly use it, she had once again incorporated it into her life.
The sad part was that her battle power had taken a hit in the short term. Without the crutch that was runes, she lost quite a bit of her functionality, but in three months, she had remedied that somewhat.
Her most used spell, 'Blink' was once again usable, and more than that, it was now almost undetectable. Before she would have to send some Moonlight to her desired location, and then use the one covering her body to drag her there, for instantaneous movement.
It was fast, but at her Rank, if someone was to see through her trick, she would be in grave danger. Now, the Moonlight necessary for the blink was all but invisible. Only others of her exact element or very high rankers could see through it.
She had also upgraded her coating spell for her blades. Now even Rank Five entities would be in danger of being on her chopping block.
Ciaran on the other hand, made no progress on mastering his spells, because he had none, to begin with. He just researched random runes, to see how his element worked, and how it licked to be used.
When he hit a wall with Wind, he would practice with Water, and with his second element, he even had three different options.
At first glance, Diana had made considerably more progress than the boy, but even after three whole months, she would only allow herself to practice rune reading thrice a week, and only because she felt pressured by her partner.
He had mastered it, kind of. He had mastered how to practice without endangering himself at least. He could now practice every day, for a few hours, and still keep up with their routine.
Diana had asked him for tips and tricks, but the boy only shook his head.
"Every element has its own language and its own personality. It further splits up, if you add different aspects. For example, my Ice is fundamentally different from my Mist. Ice is a stuck-up bitch, that would rather kill us both than ever be nice to anyone. Mist, on the other hand, is so calm, I sometimes wonder if it really is conscious or not." He had explained, and the fact he referred to his elements as real people had stopped bothering her a long time ago.
It was weird to be sure, but she now understood. She wouldn't go that far with her Moonlight, but she could at least sympathize with her fellow social reject. The elements could think, talked to them with utmost honesty, and were always there when you needed them. That was far more than most people have ever bothered to show either of them.