. . . and where the fuck is Ceylan?

There is a thin layer of snow covering the ground around Haven Temporary. The Cabin finds itself at the edge of the Coomer River Valley, at the same place you and the sanctuary guests materialized in. Downstream, it joins with Spunk Creek to create the Coomer River's mainstem—those are early names that ended up sticking before anyone could think of something else).

Lavie Lomora and The Archmage wait for you at the steps of the cabin. Evelin and Anna are also there.

"Where the fuck's Ceylan?" you ask as you touch down.

"She has not returned yet," The Archmage answers. He is a big, yet elegant, bushy-beared man who looks middle aged in appearence. He, however, says he was 200 by the time Anna got trapped in the limbo. He spent hundreds of years trying to find a way to rescue his daughter after she disappeared one night, eventually finding the Star. That by itself being a long time ago, and he being born in a different world with a different calendar, made it pretty much impossible to estimate.

"The bottles still got juice in them?"

"Nope. I gave myself some fabulous wings and now they're gone. How did you not get them?" Lavie said. Lavie Lomora is an enchantress from a distant world. She has blonde hair on her sholders, a voluptuous body, uses some kind of purple mage garb, presumably from her world, and a large, flowered hat akin to that of a 1900s noblewoman. She's great at planning and organizing, and is the biggest bookworm you've ever seen. She's also a major degenerate and a tease. You quickly learned not to drink any potion of her making.

"You'll be pretty conspicuous in my world with big-ass wings," you shrug.

"Anyhoo," Lavie changes the subject, "looks like you've been having some fun," she teases while biting her lip. She and Ceylan have that annoying habit.

"What do you mean?" you feign ignorance to be best of your ability.

"It was a hunch because you weren't walking, just gliding around, which is not something you do, and so made me think you might doing the sore-ass limp thing . . . but now you pretty much confirmed it," Lavie chuckles.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"You just dismiss it when I fuck with you, but now you're playing dumb."

You can feel your face become red. God fucking dammit.

"So it is true, huh? What did you find?" Lavie pokes. Her smile is bigger than ever.

"Well . . . fuck it, this day's gonna reset anyway," You sigh. "It's a tentacle cave on a mountain slope some 80km southwest from here. There's at least two demon boys as well. Another, actually important thing happened, but it's a long story. I'll tell it to all of you after the reset."

You can see Anna blush.

"Oh, such a shame you had to turn on loop right at the day you lost your viginity," Lavie mocked.

"Are the two of you done?" The Archmage asks. Stern. If Lavie and Ceylan are the types to bullshit around, he is the complete opposite. "Our time is limited, and we need to make you memorize our findings before it runs out."

"You're right," you say, eager to get out from under Lavie's slander, "fire away, then. Did either of you find anything interesting?"

"My notes are in the cabin," Lavie points to Haven Temporary.

"Then . . . fucking let's to the cabin," you concede, annoying.

The six of you walk towards the wooden lodge. Its interior looks more than finished, in fact even better than your house back in Earth, but the automata still move recently-fabricated wooden furniture around. You'd already told them to stop building. All of that cerimony is still them completing the plans that had already been laid out. You will probably have to drag in Lavie and lay down a compreensive plan, because those things in procedural generation mode are just too ****. The lodge as a whole has a comfy vibe to it. You figured Japanese style would be a good choice due do its extensive use of wood, mud and stone—the materials available to you—but those robots could probably carve a skyscraper out of a mountain if you gave them enough time.

"Sooo . . ." Evelin puts one arm around your shoulders. She's one of the few fellow Earthlings at the Sanctuary. You'd read up on her disappearence on the news a few years before. Most pundits chalked it up to her megalomaniac husband disappearing another mistress, even though he vehemently denied it. Turns out the bloodthirsty dictator was on the right for once. She is a charming woman right around her early thirties—she refuses to divulge the real number—who loves using expensive clothing, and has a massive chest. "What were you up to messing around?"

"Oh for fuck's sake, Evelyn. You too?"

"You know the kind of woman I am," she winks, "I am just starved for knowledge."

"Even if you won't remember it one day from now?"

"What if I discover a way of keeping my memories through timelines in the next few hours? I gotta be prepared!"

You sigh.

"I hope you don't, though, because . . ." You explain to her what happened.

"Damn," Evelyn whistles, "you got to tell me where that cave is."

"I don't know that it's safe yet. I only got in because of the loop."

"And because you're a degenerate," she says with a wicked smile.

". . . that as well." You concede.

Why are all the women in this place so goddamn horny. You ramble to your own head. I'm starting to see a trend with the type of people that star drags into here . . . and I'm probably not an exception.

The six of you sit down at a wooden table. Laura and Julia are there. Laura Kiel is a busty Asian girl at around your age, born with a genetical mutation that allowed her to learn and read at insane speeds. Her research on the star ended up getting her tangled with the Sanctuary, and now she spearheads the effort to try and find a way out of it. You are not sure whether she is from Earth or from an alternate version of it.

Julia White is most certainly from Earth as you'd seen her works on the internet. She is a master artist, also at around your age, who can draw anything and loves to do so. Her hair is dyed pink, and she has a pretty, freckled face. Her preference for skimpy, casual clothing is definitely something you wouldn't complain about.

"Very well . . ." The Archmage started, "my findings are as follows: the central mountain range is more extense than we originally thought; a secondary chain of mountains extends to the Southwest and was far too vast to be completely observed, it is separated from the winder mountain range by a large river valley, which seems to at the very least have a larger volume than . . . our local one."

"Whats the name of it again?" Evelin jokes.

The Archmage goes into detail about the geography of the region he surveyed. Plant and wildlife, geological formations and climate patterns. You desperately try to write all that down in order to cram it into your brain.

"Continuing: I encountered signs of at least prior habitation. There seems to be an abandoned tower circa 200km South of here; its exterior is derelict, doors and windows are boarded up, but its interior seems clean and inhabited, even with fresh stocks of food. Despite all of that, the temperate measured inside was too cold for human habitation. I did feel magic inside."

"So let's be clear: you didn't find any sentient life?" Lavie asks.

"No."

She seems to be oddly pleased with the answer.

"Lastly, there is atleast one active volcano at the new Southern Mountain Range. It only barely reached my field of vision before flight was exhausted. Its flames shone in many different colors, strong signs of magic."

"Is that it?" Lavie asks.

The Archmage ponders for a second.

"There also seems to be a hot spring circa 70km South of here. No magic, only natural volcanic activity, which is to be expected in a volcanic island."

"Thank you, Archmage," Laura says. "{you}?"

"Got caught in a cave filled with tentacles and horny demons around 80km Southwest from here. Didn't make it any farther from there," You said.

"O—okay . . ." Laura says, her face blushing. "L-Lavie?"

"Ladies and gentlemen..." She started "I am glad to announce that I have found the first concrete evidence of sentient life in this hellhole!" everyone hunches closer, even the Archmage, "a mere 20km of here, there is a forest inhabited by nymphs!"

Anna raises her hand.

"What's a nymph?"

"Minor female Ancient Greek deities of nature," Evelin starts, almost as if reciting a passage from a book, "typically tied to a specific place or landform, usually depicted as beautiful maidens . . ."

"And very much real here, and incapable of giving birth to males," Lavie completes.

"How do they survive as a species without males?" Anna asks.

Lavie fires a wicked smile at her, who blushes upon realization.

"Finally, the Northern coast of this island isn't that far away from here, just some 150km following the Coomer River," Lavie says. "There is also a weird island with a ruined monument and some gibberish scribbled onto it. I had to portal my way back before i could try to decifer it."

"Very well," Laura said "You got everything? This is very important." She looks at you.

"Archmage: mountain range, river valley, volcano, tower, hot spring," You say. "Ceylan: **** nymphs, coast, island with weird monument. Yeah, I think I pretty much have it on the bag."

"Great. What happened with Ceylan, by the way?"

"Didn't return. Probably either dead or ran out of powers, maybe dead _because _she ran out of powers." You ponder.

"So I suppose you guys will be surveying her region once the day resets?"

"Probably, yes."

"I think we are settled, then," Laura finishes. "Unless you want to explore more? Use all the loop that's left?"

You brace yourself. It had only been a week, but it was enough for you to gage how much Laura cared about getting out of that place.

"I'm tired, and my ass hurts, and my jaw," you explain yourself.

Laura seems annoyed at your response.

"You still have a lot of time, though. And you won't get the loop back in two weeks!"

"I'm sorry, Laura. It was really rough back there."

"You know, we can't go back to Earth as we see fit like you can. We're trapped here. And every hour not working to get out . . ."

"Laura, he just got spit-roasted for eight hours straight," Lavie interjects. Wait, eight hours?!

"I know, it's just . . . he already goes out for twelve hours at least and . . ." Each month while you are at the Sanctuary corresponds to a day on Earth, while aging is thirty times slower. It only works as long as you are at the Sanctuary, however, as time between the two dimensions re-synchronizes when you go back to Earth, effectively taking fifteen days out of everyone's lifespan for every twelve-hour interval you return to your world. Not that you can help it, you still have a life on Earth, and those people were already glad that your presence had brought them out of cosmic limbo in the first place. And . . .

"That still gives an average human a lifespan of over 1000 years at minimum. You won't lose your youth because he didn't spend half a day flying over forests," Evelin argues.

Laura sighs, resignated. She looks pretty when angry—not even in the horny way, just cute—thank fuck this is going to reset.

"I'm really sorry," you say. You are genuinely sorry. It was her lifespan being wasted there, after all,"I'm going to sleep".

Lavie and Evelin seem befuddled with your decision, which befuddles you as well. Didn't they just defend your right to do precisely that?

"Wait, you can do whatever you want without consequence and you're going to sleep?" Evelin asks.

"If you were thinking about depraved orgies, I had plenty of depravity for today," You say.

"I thought you were going to . . . I don't know, go back to Earth and punch your boss, maybe run naked in the street."

"No kind of weird shit will top what happened today," you defend youself. "By the way, savor the remaining time in which you know this secret, because I'm taking it to the grave once the day resets."

She grins.

"Savor it I will."