SCENE (8) – NO STORY SURVIVES AND FIRUZ SHAH CLAIMS THE THRONE
Setting:
- The throne room at dawn.
- Bayazid’s body covered.
- PHULJANI, GANESH, TRIPURA, SAFA—each stand at a distance.
SAFA
Which version will you keep?
GANESH
The one that governs.
TRIPURA
The one that stabilizes.
SAFA
Then none of them is true. Truth does not survive power. It waits.
(A murmur runs through the court.)
FIRST COURTIER (Offstage)
There is no Sultan.
SECOND COURTIER (Offstage)
There is no order.
(ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH enters)
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
The throne cannot remain vacant.
IMAM
By what authority?
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
By urgency.
IMAM
Urgency is not lineage.
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
It is survival.
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
(turns to Ganesh)
You understand that language.
GANESH
I understand transitions.
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
Then help me complete one.
IMAM
Who governs?
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
I rule.
IMAM
And administration?
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
That belongs to Raja Ganesh.
(A ripple—recognition, resentment, relief.)
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
You will be regent. Again.
GANESH
Then the kingdom breathes—for now.
(Everyone leaves except GANESH and TRIPURA. TRIPURA stands watching him work.)
TRIPURA
You accepted too easily.
GANESH
Stability requires speed.
TRIPURA
No. It requires courage.
A regent is only a servant with ambition.
GANESH
Careful.
TRIPURA
I am precise.
TRIPURA
You build power, and hand it to lesser men, so you don’t have to bleed publicly.
GANESH
What would you have me do?
TRIPURA
Stop pretending.
GANESH
And become what?
TRIPURA
King.
GANESH
The city will burn.
TRIPURA
It already is.
(She exits.)
(GANESH looks at the ledgers and maps. ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH enters, sits. GANESH pays no attention to him.)
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
You forget your place.
GANESH
I remember yours.
(Ganesh does not look at the guards.)
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
You were regent.
GANESH
I was inevitable.
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
Guards—
(The guards do not move.)
GANESH
They answer to order.
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
You will plunge the kingdom into war.
GANESH
No. I will end rehearsal.
(A swift movement. Firuz Shah is seized.)
ALAUDDIN FIRUZ SHAH
History will curse you.
GANESH
History remembers outcomes.
(Firuz Shah is taken away. A cry—cut short.)
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