SCENE (16) – WHAT REMAINS UNSAID
Setting:
- The throne room, late night.
- The coronation space is empty now.
- The throne still warm from use.
- (SAFA kneels, wiping the arm of the throne — slowly, deliberately.)
(She pauses. Her hand trembles once.)
(She looks toward the Shivalinga at the edge of the space.)
(SAFA rises. Takes a step toward it. Stops.)
(Silence.)
(PHULJANI enters. She has changed into simple clothes.)
SAFA
They crowned a child.
PHULJANI
They have always done that.
(SAFA looks again at the Shivalinga.)
SAFA
He stood here earlier.
PHULJANI
Did not touch it.
SAFA
If he does—
PHULJANI
—then something else will have already ended.
SAFA
You paid the price.
PHULJANI
No. I calculated it.
SAFA
That sounds like love.
PHULJANI
It is survival pretending it had mercy.
(SAFA kneels again, resumes cleaning.)
SAFA
Do you think he knows?
PHULJANI
He knows outcomes.
Not costs.
SAFA
And you?
PHULJANI
I know what must not be said aloud.
(SAFA finally looks directly at her.)
SAFA
Will it stop here?
(PHULJANI looks at the Shivalinga.)
PHULJANI
Nothing ever stops.
It only changes hands.
SAFA
Then the throne is clean.
PHULJANI
No. Only quieter.
(A distant sound of water being poured somewhere in the palace — faint, indistinct.)
(SAFA freezes. PHULJANI closes her eyes.)
PHULJANI
It has begun.
(They do not move.)
(Lights fade.)
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