Of Friends and Favors

From the outskirts of the Strait of Himaeus, the "Himaean Crags"
 

An approach

 
Rohrouk said something about Cassandra being dead for decades, centuries even. Not sure what he meant...
 
According to Eragon, our next instruction was only: "Where his [Deltavros'] eldest friend owes him a favor". Something's up with Cassandra (she's afraid of Rohrouk?)
 
Our plan is to start in southern Himaeus -- at the southern edge of Himaeus -- and row/swim in the crags (where the ship can't safely navigate) and look around for... whatever it is we're looking for?
 
Cal: "Luce has two moods: dad and daddy."
 
After a few hours of fruitless search, Eragon spots something semi-hidden in the crags: a great cave, carved out by water, that we could even sail the ship into. Something glints in the shallows before it. The cave itself is huge, and dark, which turns to reveal an even larger chamber.
 
The cave seemed to have the remnants of an old, old construction or series of houses. Some torches are lit.
 

Kiryntes, the Bronze Dragon

The glint underwater is a dragon's scale, brass and the size of a dinner plate.
 
Soaring overhead, an enormous bronze dragon flit about the cave to perch one of the spires nearby.
 
"I was told you would come. Which ones are you?"
 
With a shaky voice Luce introduced the group, and the dragon referred to us as the Fatecarvers (before it introduced itself). Cass learns that the Rust Scale Clan was here before us, and told the great dragon about us (and the other groups). Correctly identifying himself as "Deltavros' eldest friend", Kiryntes said he knew Deltavros. They found together against the "Fathom-God" in a war (?).
 
Kiryntes calls the crags of Himaes (specifically: his cave) Duscaryia, the first city of the dragonborn where the scaled ones first came from. A few still live in Duscaryia (in Himaes).
 
It was explained that Deltavros sought Kiryntes' aid, gaining his favor by killing one of the dragon's cousins. Kiryntes agreed with Deltavros to stand against the "Fathom-God" (who was a primordial or elemental of some kind). The dragon correctly identifies Deltavros' elvish friend as the brains behind speaking to a dragon, to Kiryntes. Though Deltavros defeated the Fathom-God, Kiryntes mentioned how he also sought to defeat the Ashen Wolf. Cass, and later Eragon, spoke of their knowledge of the creature. The dragon explained too how the gods defeated the primordials, though some of the primordials and their forces survived (e.g. the Ashen Wolf).
 
Deltavros last sought Kiryntes to find the Ashen Wolf, after it attacked him and his men. Kiryntes told him of a mountain to the east -- known today as Karakedum. According to the dragon Deltavros never made it to Karakedum; he died before he got there. His body rests on a small island northeast of Himaeus (or in the waters surrounding). There's a tomb of sorts, built in part by tritons that Deltavros had previously saved from slavery.
 
Deltavros helped introduce Kiryntes to someone (or something) now very important to the dragon.
 
Important: there's a lock that opens to four keys to the crypt. The horn is there, Kiryntes confirmed as well. We will need to recover all four:
 
1. The first is found on Frostbound Isle with the Winter Huntsman -- a spirit -- the same whom Deltavros sought to retrieve a weapon from (for the Ashen Wolf). He loves the thrill of the hunt and tests of skill. From Deltavros: "Dangerous, but honorable."
2. The second was given to the people of Teir Shanigray.
3. The third is off of Mikelonia, held by the tritons there.
4. The fourth is held by Kiryntes himself. He will trade it for the death of a local beast (that is weak to fire).
 
Thus far, only we and the Rust-Scale Clan have spoken to Kiryntes.
 
 
Regretfully (?), we decide to head south back to the Sister Isles to resupply, and then actually decide what the fuck to do.
 

A dream

At night as I slept, I dreamt I stood in a stream in a kind of moss-covered valley, bathed in sunlight. There was a cave, before which a mighty oak tree grew straight from the rock itself. There was an overwhelming feeling of peace, even as I stepped into the creek and towards the cave, I heard from behind me: "Luce!"
 
It was a man, dressed in all black -- cloak included. With pale skin and jet-black eyes, he asked, then yelled at me to tell Cassandra to take the ring off or he will rip his eyes from his head.
 

With warning

Pulled by fate, Cass sought Luce just as he awoke. The two spoke in private: Cass confessed that she had pulled Death, the Tower, and the Devil from her imbued tarot. She saw him (her father?), the man who took her in when she was young.
 
Cass debated, and spoke to Thessalonia, before deciding to take the ring off. The man spoke to her, "assuring" her he knows where she is now, and that he "doesn't want to hurt her", but "she is ready". He recalls about how he might have been a sailor (as well as recount Cassandra's vision when she read the tarot). He also described a lighthouse of black rock and bone, with a light circling atop it (perhaps in a sea of souls) -- he climbed it before awaking to the real(?) world. From the bottom of the ocean he dragged himself to the surface. Then was mention of going back to that lighthouse of souls, and of Cassandra as his navigator, for she can read the cards. "It doesn't hurt to die."
 
Cass: "he wants me to guide him to the Raven Queen". She explains (the italics above), how he died but has come back; how he exposed her to the desperation of the dead. "There is always unfinished business".
 
"You choose your own fate, Cassandra."