We transported down to the town of LaHiri that Tren and Mabrin confirmed was a remote settlement in the north of Bajor. It appeared to be a lakeside fishing village. We stashed the Intendant and Molly in the bushes and left Thavliss to stand guard over them. Many of the villagers seemed to be filing into a large building in the centre of the village. They were discussing some kind of auction.
Inside, a greasy looking Bajoran was conducting an auction. He was some kind of local landlord looking to recoup some losses on unpaid rent. The items under auction were the possessions of an absconded tenant. We quickly recognised the clothing items as being Starfleet issue.
The bidding was mostly between a young Bajoran woman and a robed Cardassian. The woman won two lots and the Cardassian one. The Cardassian seemed annoyed. We introduced ourselves to the landlord who was an odius man named Grezelbold Ance. He was only interesting in talking to us for as long as we feigned interest in renting a property from him. We promised to visit the property to examine it.
The young Bajoran woman was shy and hardly made eye contact with us. After the Cardassian stormed out with his lot, Tren offered to asist her with carrying her winnings back to her house. She agreed. We all made the brief journey across town, leaving the Intendant and Molly sedated and tied up in the woods.
Bringum explained that she was an historian with an interest in B'Hala. She told us about coming to visit the village to investigate the carvings at the local monastery. She told us that the lots she bought at the auction belonged to a Bajoran (matching Ben Sisko's description) named Berail Benjo. She was interesting in reading and findings he made. She seemed to have struck up some kind of friendship with Sisko as they had a shared interest in B'Hala and the monastery. We decided that the monastery should be our next port of call.
It was a few miles hike over the hills to the monastery. The building was clearly very old and not in the best state of repair. We arrived in a main courtyard in time to witness to construction of a large wicker man of the kind common in folk traditions throughout the Federation. The monks assembling the object explained that it was a fertility symbol used in their celebration of the harvest festival. We all privately resolved not to end up on the inside of the wicker man.
We just caught the end of a service in the monastery. Vedik Winn was leading the service:
" And at that time, the wraith Kosst Amojan proclaimed that those who took were those who had power and their talents and arms game them rights to all the land of Bajor. The timid, the injured, the sick and the hungry where three times cursed and the Kosst Amojan sent forth word that these creatures of weakness were the cause of the blight on the land. And at the command of the lord of the Pah Wraiths, the land was purged of the weak and their matter fed the flame that fertilised the lands and the poor were cast into the waters of Bajor as sustenance for the Mul’cha.
Power is everything.
Blessed be the Kosst Amojan. "
We briefly talked to the Vedik. She was every bit the politician that I have read about in Sisko's logs. She seemed happy to let us explore the monastery, and we soon discovered a staircase leading down into the lower depths of the building.
And the adventure continues...