Just wanted to ask to see if the forum knew before I went to The Stroud himself and feel like an idiot for questions that have been asked a billion times, and Im just too dang lazy too look around to find them.

Anyways, In GE, when bart is summoned, he said that Nat was a strong magician before he actaully knew it was Nat. I know the power question has been asked a billion times, but if magicians have no magic, how do they have power? Did he just pronounce the spell with perfect dialect or something, and this made the summoning harder to resist than the usual 'impossible to resist', and that by power he just means he aint got no accent? I dont really get it.

Then secondly,

Magicians have no magic. Demons, elementals, and supposedly pentacles do. But how do magicians cast Shriveling fire and all that good stuff to punish a demon. Cause when Nat tries to punish Bart after Bart learns his name, Nat casts some spells, and they get thrown back at him. Did Nat have some Imp that was casting these spells that could hurt a Djinni of a considerable higher power? Or by being in a pentacle, does that somehow give Nat the power to summon a quick burst of power from the other realm? I dont know. It all pretty much confuddles a simple mind like mine.

I have to say that i'm stumped there. I have looked, and tried, to answer both of these questions before but i just can't. It does baffle your mind so unfortunatley i'm no help.

A discussion similar to this was started several months ago.
I cleared it in one posts, with a couple reposts for clarification.
I'll go in order.
1. Magicians don't have magical power, but they have power of will, and that's what Bart was refering to when Nat summoned him.
2.The summons are impossible to resist regardless of power.
It should be noted, however, that if a magician attempted to summon something and it used all his energy, killing him, then the summons would fail because no magician would be able to continue it, setting the spirit free.
3. As for the pentacle power, you have it correct Aither. The pentacle, I suppose, gives them something akin to magic, but only to inflict pain and force their orders upon the spirits trapped within the pentacle.

Any other questions?
~Dansariki

I agree Dansariki.

Why thank you.
I've come up with another theory for #3- The pentacle draws power from the spirit, minimal amounts of it, for the magician to use.

But I'm almost certain thats not right.

sure, magicians have no majical power, but i believe that their spells are like little "cheats" to get through the barrier between the two worlds and thus calling forth power from the other world.
the magic used for punishments is also from the other world (i think) and if you have ever written html you kind of know what im talking about. There are certain rules to follow, but they are loose, and because of that there are many possibilities. If you know the correct spell (or make one up that is worded correctly) you should be able to do pretty much anything. well, summon anything. Remember in PG (if u read it) if you exert your will in the other place, you can create anything.

Dansariki wrote: Why thank you.
I've come up with another theory for #3- The pentacle draws power from the spirit, minimal amounts of it, for the magician to use.

But I'm almost certain thats not right.

I agree with ur first & second point Dansariki but I think though the pentacle provides means for casting a spell, it uses the magicians energy & not the demons power.