So, if I've got this right, you're using stored lightning to create some kind of powerful magnet, and the magnet holds the plasma in shape.

[It wasn't hard for him to equate the power creating the field with electricity. The metal perches they'd scrapped after the incident where he'd figured out lightning was attracted to metal had been rather magnetic afterwards.]

It's not magic, but it's so far beyond my ability to understand right now that it might as well be. That's kind of daunting.