Holding up his hand to halt the answer, Maulana’s face rotated to us. The beads of his veil rustled with the movement. “This is Muungano. We have one another’s back or we have nothing. If you can’t live with that, you know where the door is.”

Maulana turned his back, dismissing us. The entire room held its breath. Respected and charismatic, he did not care about being liked and would never be accused of coddling anyone. But he was a real one and could always be counted on to speak true and direct. Though the Ijo remained in session, we adjourned to the next room with Bayard.

“What the hell was that?” Bayard asked.

“Welcome to Maulana’s expedited conflict transformation. Are we good?” We extended our arm.

“Yeah, we good.”

We clasped arms. The grasp felt real. Bayard’s emi light and genuine.

“Xola would have handled that different.” Better, we wanted to say.

“But Xola’s not here.” Bayard came around to our side of the table, sitting on its edge. “Look, Maulana’s new to this and hasn’t found his footing yet. It’s our job to help him develop into the leader he’s meant to be.”

With that, any residual tension left the room. Even toward Maulana. Our thoughts drifted to the work of Muungano and the new spaces where we found ourselves. We needed to figure out where we fit in to support the work. By the time we returned to the antechamber, the raised voices indicated that the meeting was already well under way.

“In light of the attack on Maulana, the actions of sealing the Orun Gate seem all the more prudent,” Jaha said.

“Or all the more rash. We have no idea the factions in play,” Geoboe said, a flickering holovid image. He could not be bothered to make the trip from Oyigiyigi.

With the posture of resigned dignity about him, Maulana made his way to the dais. In the midst of the raucous debate, the scrape of his boots was oddly audible. He patted the air to regain control of the room. Now that we had reentered, he waited for us to find our seats. The assembly drew back, also taking the opportunity to sit down.

“You started without us?” we asked.

“It wasn’t like that.” Jaha glanced at Maulana. “It was all friendly chitchat and such, usual premeeting small talk. That … escalated.”

“I called this meeting in order to brief the security council first,” Maulana said.

“I see you have learned and grown.” Selamault smirked, reminding him of his grandstanding when he became head of the Buhari family.