Not sure of the Communion math specifics.
If you have multiple communion masters, they all use the entire pool of slaves. Try not to make your poor communicant slaves explode, as all that fatigue can pile up.
The spell power boosts don't show when you right-click, but I'm pretty sure they only affect the paths the mages already have, and it's pretty clear something's up when they toss WAY more orb lightning than they otherwise would.
When the communion masters cast personal-benefit spells, these seem to affect the communion slaves as well. At the very least, things like Body Ethereal, Fire Shield (!), Elemental Fortitude, Summon Earthpower (now your communicants get reinvigoration!), Phoenix Pyre, Astral Shield et al seem to. Oh, and Pythium Communicants are sacred, in case you want to abuse them even more with Earth 4 (yet more reinvigoration!).
Communion + Relief is a powerful combination because of the fatigue redistribution.