They left the then still court with full living count, the name-fragment pulling like a hook under Zeus's ribs.
The road into Dead Crown Basin did not open as a clean gate, it opened as a descent through ended-realm weather in which the ash thinned into darker wind and the stone underfoot carried the memory of crowns that had been broken and still wanted subjects. Nyxara, Vespera and Sable walked in the war-pact line without being asked, their dens burned, their rights contested, they had already chosen the company over empty return.
"Last chance to turn back toward shallower Threshold ground." Vespera said.
Athena did not slow. "Shallow ground is already hunting us."
Hades kept pace with Sable near the rear. "And answers do not live in shallow ground."
They found the blockade where the descent narrowed into a throat of black terraces.
