SCENE (17) – GANESH CONSOLIDATING POWER OUTSIDE THE PALACE
Characters
- GANESH
- OFFICER
- MERCHANT REPRESENTATIVE
- MESSENGERS / SCRIBES
- SAFA
Setting
- A large private house outside the imperial complex.
- Not grand, but organized. Lamps, maps, messengers moving in and out.
- Night edging toward dawn.
(GANESH stands over a table covered with maps and ledgers.)
OFFICER
River toll suspension confirmed.
Eastern convoy arrived intact.
GANESH
Good.
(He does not look up. He marks the ledger.)
Grain moves tomorrow.
OFFICER (with hesitations)
Without the Sultan’s seal—
GANESH
—the Sultan’s seal will follow the grain.
(A pause. The OFFICER bows.)
(The MERCHANT steps forward.)
MERCHANT
We hear there is uncertainty.
GANESH
There is urgency.
MERCHANT
We prefer certainty.
(GANESH gestures to the map.)
GANESH
Certainty is expensive. Urgency is profitable.
(The MERCHANT smiles—decision made.)
MERCHANT
Our caravans are yours.
(MESSENGER enters.)
MESSENGER
The northern chiefs ask whom to obey.
GANESH (with no hesitation)
Tell them to obey peace.
If peace fails, obey me.
(The MESSENGER exits.)
(GANESH touches the map—Pandua at the center, then draws his finger outward.)
GANESH (to himself)
Power does not sit.
It circulates.
OFFICER
Any other order?
GANESH
Yes – No movement toward the palace. Let them think distance equals weakness.
(OFFICE exits.)
(Outside, the sound of hooves, carts, voices—life moving.)
(GANESH remains steady at the table. The room is briefly still.)
(SAFA enters quietly, hooded. She carries a narrow scroll, sealed.)
GANESH
You came alone?
SAFA
I always do.
(She places the scroll on the table—but does not release it yet.)
GANESH
From whom?
(SAFA breaks the seal—to show the mark.)
SAFA
Begum Saheba.
(GANESH does not reach for it.)
GANESH
Read.
SAFA
It may not be appropriate for me to give voice to it.
GANESH
So, you know it. Don’t you?
SAFA
Begum Saheba wrote it in front of me.
GANESH
You have an eagle’s eyes.
SAFA (with hesitation)
It is a private.
GANESH
I want to be certain – it is not a trap.
SAFA
Begum Saheba would not set a trap for you.
GANESH
But the Sultan may.
I need a witness. For our mutual safety.
(A long beat. SAFA understands the weight of this. She reads carefully.)
SAFA
The garden sleeps after the third watch.
Walk where the orchard thins,
where fruit forgets its weight.
Bring no footsteps with you,
borrow no time.
Speak only once.
(She lowers the scroll. Silence.)
GANESH
Continue.
SAFA
I beg your mercy, no further.
(She folds the scroll, hands it to him.)
SAFA (cont.)
Begum asked me to remind you – Palace walls have grown its ears, they have learned to listen,
and doors now repeat what they hear.
GANESH
The Sultan watches everything.
SAFA
He watches reassurance.
I will give him enough of it to forget to count time.
GANESH
That is dangerous.
SAFA
So does the meeting.
GANESH
She wants a meeting.
SAFA
She wants a decision.
GANESH
And you?
SAFA
I will make the night disappear from record.
GANESH
You take on too much.
SAFA
I take on what others drop.
GANESH
Tell her I will go.
(SAFA turns to leave, then stops.)
SAFA
Do not stay.
GANESH
I never do.
(SAFA exits into the night.)
(GANESH stands alone, the scroll in his hand.)
(Opens the scroll and adjusts the lamp.)
GANESH (reads the scroll. It transfers to PHULJANI’s voice offstage.)
When the moon chooses a cloud,
to be covered in the warmth of its guard.
The cloud spreads its veil,
holding what the moon presses to her heart—
opening folds, loosening fractures,
allowing light to arrive without being seen
there a Begum wanted to be a woman,
and needed to be loved.
The smell of the wind she misses,
the voice that stalled the world of power,
unguards all guards,
the warmth that shakes her heart,
cools her thirst–
when she heard the name – Basudha.
(Lights fade in the middle of the read. Voice remains.)
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