SCENE (6) – MURDER AS POLICY
Setting:
- A Ganesh’s private chamber. Night.
(GANESH and PHULJANI speak in whispers.)
PHULJANI
Bayazid cannot rule.
GANESH
He can be removed.
PHULJANI
Assassination?
GANESH
Correction.
(PHULJANI exits.)
(GANESH stands reading a dispatch he already knows by heart.)
(TRIPURA enters. She does not announce herself.)
GANESH
You spoke with her.
TRIPURA
Yes.
GANESH
How long?
TRIPURA
Long enough to remove illusions.
Do not pretend surprise. You invited this.
GANESH
I did not invite betrayal.
TRIPURA
You invited imbalance.
GANESH
You speak as if I chose this.
TRIPURA
You chose not to choose.
You are managing two women and calling it governance.
GANESH
You want me to cast her out.
TRIPURA
I want you to be king.
GANESH
Bayazid sits on the throne.
TRIPURA
Temporarily.
GANESH
And when he falls?
TRIPURA
Someone must stand who is not divided.
GANESH
You think I am divided.
TRIPURA
If you keep her, you lose the crown before you touch it.
GANESH
And if I lose you?
TRIPURA
Then you lose legitimacy.
GANESH
That sounds like an ultimatum.
TRIPURA
No. It is an accounting.
GANESH
What would you have me do?
TRIPURA
Choose.
You may keep her influence or my legitimacy. Not both.
GANESH
You would destroy me to preserve order.
TRIPURA
I would preserve order even if it destroys you.
GANESH
That is not love.
TRIPURA
That is queenship.
GANESH
And if I refuse?
TRIPURA
Then I will stand where history requires me.
GANESH
Against me?
TRIPURA
Ahead of you.
GANESH
You believe you can hold the throne alone.
TRIPURA
I believe the throne must be held without trembling.
(She turns to leave.)
GANESH
Tripura.
(She stops.)
GANESH
When the crown comes within reach—where will you stand?
TRIPURA
Where I always have. Between you and ruin.
(She exits.)
(Ganesh remains alone. He looks at the maps—then rolls them tighter, as if constricting breath.)
(PHULJANI enters. She already knows something has shifted.)
PHULJANI
She spoke to you.
GANESH
Yes.
PHULJANI
Before that—she spoke to me.
GANESH
What did she say?
PHULJANI
Nothing unexpected. Everything inevitable.
GANESH
Why do you sound wounded?
PHULJANI
Because she was right.
GANESH
About what?
PHULJANI
About the cost of standing near you.
She defends her possession.
GANESH
You think I will abandon her.
PHULJANI
No. I think you will abandon yourself before you abandon either of us.
GANESH
If I choose her—
PHULJANI
You gain the throne and lose the only person who never mistook you for a crown.
GANESH
Do you love me?
PHULJANI
Yes. Enough to walk away before love becomes your alibi.
GANESH
Then what remains between us?
PHULJANI
Conspiracy. It is the only one you have not corrupted yet.
GANESH
If Bayazid dies—
If the throne opens—
PHULJANI
Do not ask me to stand beside you.
(She steps closer—not to touch, but to be heard.)
When you decide—not whom you love, but whom you sacrifice—remember this moment.
(She turns to leave.)
GANESH
Phuljani.
(She stops.)
GANESH
If I fall—
PHULJANI
Then I will know it was not because you loved me. It was because you did not choose.
(She exits.)
(Ganesh remains alone, breathing unevenly. He looks once toward the door Phuljani exited through. He does not follow.)
GANESH
(to himself)
Legitimacy demands distance. Love demands courage. I have mastered only one.
(PHULJANI rushes back to GANESH’s chamber shortly after.)
PHULJANI
Bayazid Shah is dead.
GANESH
Who told you?
PHULJANI
One of the courtiers.
GANESH
Who struck first?
PHULJANI
No one knows.
(A beat.)
GANESH
Then the city has learned initiative.
PHULJANI
Or we have been spared guilt.
(GANESH stands still. PHULJANI watches the light change.)
PHULJANI
Love did not save us.
GANESH
No. It organized us.
BLACKOUT.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21