Star Wars: How to Become a Galactic Emperor

Chapter 34 | How to skip a loathsome Sith Vocab Quiz: enter a Sith Temple

"What a dreary place," Palpatine remarked to himself. Dampness clung to his cloak and wetted the bottoms of his boots. It was horribly disgustingly cold. At this moment he was considering going back but Plagueis had told him it was an order. And if Palpatine was successful, then he would teach him a dandy Force skill or postpone that Sith vocab quiz.

Palpatine hated vocab quizzes, they were so bothersome. Especially those vocab quizzes where one would have to memorize over fifty terms but only twenty would be on the quiz. Worse, they would be in weird characters, or he couldn't get the pronunciation quite right. It was an abomination.

Palpatine stared up at the endless stretch of wall before him. He was very much hoping something wouldn't fall on top of him. Daresay, the mountain collapsed on itself. Now that would be a true terror.

Before him was an engraving. Palpatine placed a hand on the etched stone and peered at it. He muttered to himself, "Lovely." He paused and exhaled again. "Translating..."

"nw kash zo tash. Antai kash tik sh.

Pro sh, nu gauti ty.

Pro ty, nu gauti midwan.

Pro midwan, nu gauti pergaleas.

Pro pergaleas nuyak chains aras svistuis.

Tave qy sekleti uzsit nun."

Palpatine sighed deeply and gave the etched words a look before whipping out his notebook. Plagueis had told him to bring a disposable item such as paper to avoid hackability that a HoloPad would be prone to.

For many long hours he sat against the wall opposite the engravings and scrawled away. He thought his knuckles were going to bleed from all the writing. A few times he shook out his hand and paced around the room but that didn't do much. For a few minutes he stared at it and then sat down again to stare at it some more. Even with a little translating booklet to help him, it was a laborious task. He sat cross-legged against the cold stone wall with his notebook in his lap scrawling away.

Then finally he scribbled out the last translated word and all of it lifted off his shoulders.

"Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.

T_roug_ P_ssio_, I g_i_ Str__gth.

T_roug_ Str__gth, I g_i_ Pow_r.

T_roug_ Pow_r, I g_in Vi_tory.

T_roug_ Vi_tory my _hai_s _r_ Brok__.

Th_ For__ sh_ll fr__ me."

Palpatine scrunched up his brow as he read the words at all angles. It was obviously some sort of saying of the Sith but this was a saying that was unknown to him. And of course still many of the words were unknown to him as well. He had only started his duty of being a Sith Lord's apprentice less than a week ago after all.

Perhaps, it is a passcode of sorts? A key? A guide? He traced the etched letters with his finger.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Palpatine's head whipped around, and his eyes went wide.

"Sheev! What are you doing???" None other than Predune P. Palpatine skidded into the temple, halfway tumbling down the stairs. His red hair was mussy, and his face was flushed under his mask. He stopped short in front of his little brother. To Palpatine's surprise, Predune wasn't at all out of breath. A bigger question was: what in the world is Predune doing here on this backwater planet?

"Predune. Predune?" Palpatine stared at his older brother and his finger went to his ring as he began to twist it aggressively. "What are you doing here???"