The Keepers—seven women and men scattered across the megacity's patchwork of wealth and struggle—had gathered Shade and Femi under the cover of night after the circle on Bar Beach. They were ordinary in daylight: a retired teacher from Yaba, a mechanic from Oshodi, an artist from Ikeja, a fisherman from Epe, an elderly shrine keeper from Surulere, a diaspora returnee from Victoria Island, and Mama Alaba, the eldest, whose compound off Bode Thomas still smelled of burning herbs and palm oil
