Hi Mr. Stroud! I think it's awesome that you take the time to awnser questions here!

In another question, you said that you were glad that Jessica had a fan. Well I would have replied there, but I think it's locked. So, I'll say it here, I think Jessica is awesome!


So, to the questions!

1)In another question, you said that magicians have no magic themselves. So, one thing that I'm really curious about in AoS is when they're at parliment, and Mrs. Underwood is telling Nat who people are. She points out Jessica and says: "She's something to do with Security: a very celebrated magician. She was the one who caught the Czech infiltrators ten years ago. They raised a marid and set it on her, but she created a Void and sucked it in. All on her own she did that, and with minimum loss of life. So-don't cross her when you're older, John." So, about this Void. If she can't do magic, how did she do this? Did it involve summoning something? If so, why would she have had any "loss of life"? This is a little off topic, but in PG, when when Jessica's brought before Nouda, why didn't she create another Void? It might have taken out some of the other demons, but if the Staff was barely strong enough, I doubt that Jessica's Void could have taken out Nouda.

2)In PG when all the magicians are at council, Mortensen says that Jessicas comment to pull out of the Americas is nothing but rank appeasment, and borders on treachery. Then I'll quote what Jessica does: "A blue-gray glow erupted around Jessica Whitwell's clenched fist; the air hummed with a surge of unearthly force. Her voice was suddenly quiet. "Would you be so good as to repeat that, Carl?" So, what is this "blue-gray glow"? How does she do this? Is this a demon's power?

3)Well I just remembered this, so back to AoS. When Simon comes to confront Underwood about the Amulet. It says that Underwood "uttered the words of a defensive charm." With these words, did he summon something to make a sheild? Then a few pages later, it says "Swathed in his defensive nexus, Underwood sent a bolt of blue fire crackling toward Lovelace." Again, another summoning?

Thanks again!

P.S. I can't believe it I forgot to tell you your books are awesome!! They're better than Harry Potter and LOTR combined!

Edit:Well I thought of another question, that I thought I'd add. It concerns Jessica's Shubit. In the reference guide on the official site, it says that Shubit is a Djinni, and favors the guise of a bear. Well, in the end of PG, it says:

"Ms. Whitwell raised her hands and made an ornate sign; she shouted out two words. A burst of yellow light, a cloud of brimstone-her afrit, wearing the form of an uneasy-looking grizzly bear-appeared above her head."

So, is this indeed Shubit? If so, did you accidentaly make him a djinn in the first two, and an afrit in the third?

Hello there,

Sorry it's taken so long to answer. That's not because of the trickiness of the question, I promise.

Good to hear you're a fan of JW. The various bits you quote illustrate that she wasn't to be messed with. But all her powers, whether mystic glowing forces materialising around her hand, or the fabled Void she created, are ultimately produced by one or more spirits in her employ. Her (high) ability lies with the power to restrain them and keep them on tap, so that she's able to use their magic when necessary. Just as Nat, when he's grown up and on top of his game, is able to summon and send out several spirits at once, so JW is able to juggle a few entities of considerable power. One of them (or maybe more - this spell is a tricky one to pull off) was at hand to produce the Void; she has other higher-plane ones at her beck and call to do the fancy hand stuff in the argument with Mortensen. Magicians love theatrical show, and having magic seem to erupt from their hands is a favourite. Schyler did the same in AoS. Lovelace gets a captive slave to produce the shield in the incident you mention. It's ALL done through summoning, altougth the summoning in question isn't necessarily right there and then. High magicians have the ability to keep slaves on hand, ready for the moment.

The loss of life mentioned in the Void incident is not Jessica's but other people. No doubt a few innocent bystanders were caught up, but she'd regard it as legitimate collateral damage.

As for Shubit... hmm.... sounds as if he got a sudden impossible promotion in the last book. Djinn don't rise in status, so this might indeed have been a small mistake... Oops.

Thanks for the questions! All the best,

J