SCENE (2) – THE EXPELLED REGENT AND QUEEN MEETS SECRETLY
Setting:
- A deserted garden outside the palace walls. Night.
- (A follower approaches to Ganesh.)
FOLLOWER
You are exiled.
GANESH
I am unburdened. The Governors still read my seal.
FOLLOWER
Sultan Hamza believes he has won.
GANESH
Every young sultan does—until he learns ruling is never solitary.
(He turns toward the palace.)
The shadow has already crossed the walls.
FOLLOWER
Raja Ganesh, be safe.
(FOLLOWER exits. GANESH stands alone. PHULJANI enters.)
PHULJANI
You didn’t come to free me. You came to see if I still lived.
GANESH
I came because silence ends eventually. And when it does, it demands witnesses.
PHULJANI
Hamza knows.
GANESH
I assumed he would. Power educates faster than tutors.
PHULJANI
He looked at me as if I were disease. As if loving you was treason.
GANESH
Love is treason—when it refuses to kneel before a throne.
PHULJANI
You advised him. Placed him there. Gave him the crown like a child’s toy.
GANESH
I gave him a crown, not courage.
PHULJANI
And when he used it against you?
GANESH
Then the lesson began.
PHULJANI
Hamza thinks he has won. He thinks banishment is death.
GANESH
Banishment is rehearsal.
PHULJANI
We should not stay here for long.
(A MESSENGER arrives in a hurry.)
MESSENGER
Sultan Hamza Shah is dead.
PHULJANI
Where?
MESSENGER
His chamber.
PHULJANI
Who found him?
MESSENGER
A harem girl.
PHULJANI
The guards?
MESSENGER
I don’t know.
(The MESSENGER bows and exits.)
(The palace sounds feel suddenly distant.)
PHULJANI
What shall we do now?
(GANESH does not answer immediately.)
GANESH
We do what follows power without patience. We decide which truth survives.
PHULJANI
You speak as if you expected this.
GANESH
I expected consequence.
PHULJANI
You think I did this.
GANESH
I think you had cause. You lost safety. You lost choice.
PHULJANI
And you?
GANESH
I lost a problem.
PHULJANI
And Safa?
GANESH
Safa lost something that cannot be returned.
Broken things sometimes strike back.
PHULJANI
If she did this—
GANESH
—then justice will call it rage.
PHULJANI
And if you did this?
GANESH
History will call it stability.
PHULJANI
Someone may think I did this—
GANESH
—history will call it ambition.
(A pause. Footsteps echo faintly outside.)
GANESH
The city will wake to a vacuum.
PHULJANI
And someone will rush to fill it.
GANESH
Exactly.
(He turns away.)
GANESH
Prepare yourself. Before dawn, someone must appear inevitable.
(PHULJANI watches him—uncertain, alert.)
PHULJANI
And Safa?
GANESH
Safa saw nothing.
Safa heard nothing.
She will survive.
PHULJANI
That is not mercy.
GANESH
(Ganesh adjusts his robe—precisely.)
No. It is arithmetic.
(Lights dim as they stand apart.)
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