D Walker knelt at the edge of an endless void, three years of dead trails behind him and a red panda mage still nowhere in his sights. He had come here because every other door had closed. The silver bracelet on his wrist pulsed weakly, its purple gems dim — the gauge of a staff running out of years. He needed a sign. He needed it now. A small ball of energy drifted out of the dark and settled in his palm. Black and white light curled around it like smoke. The bracelet flared bright, and the orb shifted in his hand, unfolding into a white tiger cub that pressed its head against his chest. Then a purple eye opened in the void above him. A staff dropped into being with that same eye locked inside its crown. He touched the wood. The world spun. For fifteen seconds he saw every road, every king, every hidden room — and a small figure with red fur crouched beside a stone hearth. Then he collapsed. When he woke, the cub was curled on his coat, the staff was warm in his grip, and he finally knew which direction to walk.