SCENE (4) – PHULJANI SEEKS HELP FROM NUR QUTBI ALAM AND GANESH
Setting:
- A small prayer hall. Oil lamps. Quiet voices.
- (Nur Qutbi Alam is already seated.)
(Phuljani enters.)
(She waits.)
(The silence does not answer her.)
PHULJANI
I seek order.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Prayer is what remains.
PHULJANI
I need more than comfort.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Pray. Allah restores what men ruin.
PHULJANI
Allah does not govern provinces.
The palace is bleeding.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Blood dries faster than memory.
PHULJANI
Will you help me restore control?
NUR QUTBI ALAM
I may help you stop breaking more.
PHULJANI
That is not enough.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Prayer will not restore what you lost.
Only power will.
And power always collects.
(She bows—not in gratitude, but farewell. She walks to deserted garden where GANESH was already waiting for.)
PHULJANI
I came for certainty.
GANESH
I have suspicions.
PHULJANI
Whom do you blame?
GANESH
Everyone who survives.
PHULJANI
Azam Shah’s death —
You believe I guided the knife?
GANESH
I believe you guided the moment.
PHULJANI
I begged you not to kill him.
GANESH
You begged me to hesitate.
(A pause. This matters.)
PHULJANI
Because I loved him.
GANESH
And me.
PHULJANI
I loved him as refuge.
I loved you as fire.
GANESH
You left me suspicion.
PHULJANI
I begged you not to take his life because I knew what would follow.
GANESH
And yet it followed anyway.
PHULJANI
Because you chose power over patience.
GANESH
I chose survival.
PHULJANI
So did I.
If I were guilty—would I stand here?
GANESH
If you were innocent—would you still be breathing?
(They look at each other. The truth sits between them.)
GANESH
Why now?
PHULJANI
Because Bayazid is not the only claim in the harem.
We cannot be seen.
PHULJANI
We never were.
(Lights fade.)
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