Expansion changed the atmosphere before it changed the structure.
Aaliyah noticed it in the way the room felt on the first day of the phased growth. There were a few new faces, tentative, observant, carrying the careful energy of people entering something already alive.
The space held them.
But it shifted slightly to do so.
She arrived early, as she often did now, and stood for a moment without choosing a seat. The familiar tables seemed both the same and subtly rearranged.
Not physically.
Energetically.
The room was preparing.
So was she.
The session began without announcement. No speech marking transition. No declaration of expansion.
The new members were folded into the rhythm, introduced briefly, then allowed to find their place.
Aaliyah watched how the group responded.
Some leaned in.
Some guarded.
Most adjusted.
