Does Nathaniel die in the end of the Bartimaeus trilogy? ^o)

There are a lot of other questions concerning this subject. JS has previously (on his facebook) stated that he is pretty sure that Nat is dead (that does not mean 100 % sure). He did also state that although Nat might be dead, it doesnt mean we wont see him again (whatever that means) ^o) :P :P

Salin_Mandrake wrote:He did also state that although Nat might be dead, it doesnt mean we wont see him again (whatever that means) ^o) :P :P

Really? That IS interesting. I wonder....Well, at first that makes me think that by "see him again", it will probably be that Bartimaeus will wear Nathaniel's form from time to time. (I wonder who Bartimaeus will 'wear' more often? Nathaniel or Ptolemy?) :)

A far Crazier hypothesis is that Maybe Nathaniel did survive....in Spirit!
We've seen that humans can go to the Other Place and it wrecks their body in the process. However, we don't know if it's perhaps possible for a person's spirit to Remain in the Other Place Forever! When Kitty and Ptolemy went to the Other Place, their bodies were harmed, but nothing bad happened to their spirits, it seems. In fact, going to the Other Place seemed to Strengthen their spirits. I base this off the fact that their 'aura' was much brighter, stronger when they returned back to Earth. What does all this mean?:

Nathaniel's spirit might have gone to the Other Place as his body died!

At the end of the book, Nathaniel and Bartimaeus had basically fused together. They were almost One and the same. And the more time they spent 'together', the more attuned they became of each other's thoughts, memories, feelings. This is how Bartimaeus said it was like for all the Spirits in the Other Place.
-SO, perhaps Nathaniel's spirit began to merge with Bartimaeus's essence. Maybe part (or all) of Natheniel's spirit is merged with Bartimaeus?

-OR, maybe as Bartimaeus was dismissed, he 'grabbed' onto Nathaniel's Spirit and took it with him to the Other Place!
Considering how 'close' Bart and Nat were at the time, I find this hypothesis very possible! I mean, look at the principle of Ptolemy's Gate. All it was, was just 1 normal pentacle, right? A Broken pentacle even. It was just basically a circle. Oh, and they had to say the summoning spell in reverse, right? So, all in all, there was very little magic involved. All that Really mattered was that a Spirit was there to lead the person to the Other Place. Not That much effort was required for a human to get to the OP, even when the friendly Spirit was All the way across dimensions, or whatever, at the Other Place.
So, if the friendly demon was closer to the person, then that might mean it would be even easier to get that person's spirit to the Other Place! Perhaps the magic from the Dismissal spell alone could have been enough to allow Nathaniel's spirit to travel to the OP! And even if it was Mandatory to say the reversed Summoning spell for it to work, Nathaniel could easily have done that in time!