Thank you so much Agnes Louis. To answer your questions (with more questions):

I am not planning any kind of sequel. It seems self contained. As to where the sword came from and all that, you know as much as I do.

There’s a lot up in the air. Will Carl recover? If not, who will find the sword? If he recovers, he is obviously not going to live forever (not in this story anyway lol) so what becomes of the sword then?