give me a life time of promises (open)

Loren nodded at Maea’s enthusiastic response. ”Sure. It’ll give me an excuse to visit the kitchens for once. Well, I suppose I’ll have to find them first.” Although it was subtle, there was a joke in there about his apparently distressing tendency to starve himself when he was stressed or depressed (so always). As she explained what little she'd discovered, he pursed his lips thoughtfully. "You could do that." Then he shrugged. "Or I could go fly up there and see how much of it I can record once I'm back on the ground." It was mostly idle conversation, made between puffs of breath as he too struggled with the sheer number of stairs. Astra, for her part, continued trotting up them without trouble. "I'm not sure I trust the locals to give us accurate maps." LOREN Not quite an open book