[Well, she could hope, right? But she understands why he does, even from a practical standpoint and not just curiosity. Though she'd bet there's probably at least some curiosity to the question.]

Usually operates as electrical or plasma. Electromagnetic also works, hence the initial reference to EMPs. If you want to talk origins and nature, that gets a little bit-- trickier.

But it behaves more or less like energy from a normal power source. I just run it through swords generally, and that seems a bit more up close and personal than is probably smart at the moment.