Oh, okay, I can explain that one! (Skip this if you want to get it from a re-read instead. :) )
Once Carlos claims/bonds-with?/charges the sand-copy sword, he steps into a vortex. (I didn't quite realize that he was specifically dissolving its magic as he entered it, but apparently he was.) The next thing he knows, he's waking up on the ground, in line for a condo, his arm freshly bandaged, his lab coat cleaned, wearing unfamiliar clothes ... and he has no memory of how he got from stepping into the vortex to that point. He writes off the little he does remember as having been a dream. The story quickly moves on from that point, but there is a hole; the epilogue then fills in that hole.
It's a bit of a narrative cheat, really; the emotional continuity of that part of the story doesn't quite work if you have that "spoiler" that Cecil will eventually accept Carlos's wizardry (rather than hoping he will but not yet knowing). Given the scope of the story, I don't really mind, though.
no subject
Once Carlos claims/bonds-with?/charges the sand-copy sword, he steps into a vortex. (I didn't quite realize that he was specifically dissolving its magic as he entered it, but apparently he was.) The next thing he knows, he's waking up on the ground, in line for a condo, his arm freshly bandaged, his lab coat cleaned, wearing unfamiliar clothes ... and he has no memory of how he got from stepping into the vortex to that point. He writes off the little he does remember as having been a dream. The story quickly moves on from that point, but there is a hole; the epilogue then fills in that hole.
It's a bit of a narrative cheat, really; the emotional continuity of that part of the story doesn't quite work if you have that "spoiler" that Cecil will eventually accept Carlos's wizardry (rather than hoping he will but not yet knowing). Given the scope of the story, I don't really mind, though.