Before Soi Ali had rid the world of Strun Drio, there was another who attempted. Her true name, was Veona, however, she had many faces, and many names. Her race was unknown even then, and she had no identifiable features, for they changed from day to day. She had travled all her life, and so had never run across Strun Drios path. But she did here of his doings. Every single one. She hung around taverns and collected bits of gossip, trading information for information. But she even knew doings unseen by mortal eye. She read the sand. The patterns in the sand are but messages written out by the wind. One only need know how to read them. And the wind writ mournful tales into the sand she read. She read them and wrote back painstakingly with a stick. But what can I do? The wind blew and the answer was left. She read it, and understood what to do. There was a gong atop a mountain, hidden long ago to prevent its use. This gong when played would transport the person striking it and all with in an allotted distance to the next world, and then if struck again there, would bring them back. Those who had hid this gong however had been wary of repeated uses of it. And placed a flaw into this gong. It would divide into eight pieces and then randomly distribute them all over the world, making it difficult to use it again and again. This was what the wind intended, and what it told her. It included instructions on how to get into the mountain and back out safely and where to go. Veona followed these instructions and found the mountain. She climbed it, and found the hidden entrance the wind had indicated. She lit a torch and entered the dark tunnel that led to the heart of the mountain. She passed the traps that had been laid as the wind told her how to avoid and reached the center chamber to where the gong sat on a platform. But instead of taking it up most would, she walked past it into the next chamber as the wind had instructed her to do, and there on a shelf was the real gong, a little dusty, but cobweb free. She picked it up and carefully left the way she had come. The gong was wrapped up in a piece of cloth and stuck into her pack. She brought it to the closest town and asked around about the whereabouts of Strun Drio. She was in luck; he was in a town only a single day's travel away. She left that night and arrived the next morning. She then requested an audience with Strun Drio himself. It was granted for later that day. She bummed around town until it was time, then went to the building in which he was staying. They went through the formalities, and then she presented the gong to Strun Drio as a gift. He took it and she stepped back out of range of the gong and suggested he test it. He did. He struck the gong, and it rang true. Strun Drio was transported to the next world, where the gong cracked into eight pieces and scattered. Success, this world was free of Strun Drio once and for all. Wrong, the real Strun Drio walked into the room. He never saw to the audiences himself, and had a look-a-like made up for that. She realized her mistake and fled. The wind saw to it that her escape was successful.
