Magic trades to reduce spell costs, by design, ignore physics. They look at what's being traded, and what makes sense, from a completely different perspective.

As we exist in a physical reality, this can be difficult to accept, and easily seems very weird, if not nonsensical.

Which is entirely what I was going for. I want magic to have an internal logic, but I ALSO want there to be a fundamental strangeness to it that defies physical logic.

Much about it cannot be understood without a willingness to see things from a perspective that defies reality as we know it.

Also, why wouldn't people have spare clothes in Tedd's basement? All sorts of nonsense could happen down there. Be prepared, darn it.