To be the apprentice of the Sith Master took adjustment. But the newly ordained Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, had found his new role and its accompanying abilities coming to him more easily as he put time between himself and his former life. He lived firmly in the present and threw his attention wholly into the labors of building and securing the fledgling Galactic Empire. Distraction wasn't hard to come by. As a Jedi he'd been expected to constantly reflect on his passions and subdue them through study and meditation. Now he could allow his emotions to fill him to the brim and run over like a flood, drowning all reservations and thoughts of the past.
And no thought was forbidden now; no response too unseemly. To the Sith, anger and hate were pure and natural. Resisting something so natural had always left him weak and frustrated as a Jedi learner, and his instructors were tempted to give in to their base feelings as well in their futile efforts to contain him. Now he drew powerful, rejuvenating energies from this endless wellspring. As Sith, he denied himself no passion and no longer resisted the intrusive thoughts he'd once concealed with shame. Now he couldn't imagine going back to the old, stunted, ascetic philosophies and practices of the Jedi Order.
The more he embraced it, the less Anakin occupied his thoughts; the less she did as well.
After completing an intensive and exhaustive round of training with the Inquisitorius, Palpatine summoned him to leave for Coruscant. The Emperor wanted to meet with him, now that he had a stretch of time not filled by the demands of the Empire or the needs of his own students. (Though they weren't Sith, it was still necessary to convert them to the Dark Side of the Force to help cleanse the Empire of the last Jedi remnants.
Upon being summoned, Vader left for Coruscant immediately. With the Jedi Order now dead to him, literally as well as spiritually, and his beloved now gone as well, Palpatine was the only individual to whom he now pledged fervent loyalty. And not just loyalty but indebtedness as well. Palpatine had recreated him, the good and the bad he now called his life; but despite his broken physical condition, he still owed his new master his life. Not even his violent fight for life on Mustafar would have mattered if his master hadn't pulled the wreckage of his body and mind from the smoldering grave he'd been condemned to.
A small part of him was irked that the message wasn't sent earlier to give him time to prepare. But the apprentice always answered when called upon. It was the nature of the relationship; especially with Palpatine as the master. And it was in the apprentice's own benefit to do so.
While aboard his shuttle, Vader considered what Palpatine wanted to speak about. He doubted he was being summoned for a commendation. Neither could he envision a rebuke waiting for him. He'd done everything the Emperor and the Empire required of him.
It had to concern some task or mission. Most likely, a new pocket of Jedi padawans, or a stray Jedi Master, had turned up and needed to be terminated. Or maybe a few of the more uppity Imperial officers required a persuasive neck massage to get them back in line. He'd been wanting to grab a few of them and give them a good squeeze around the throat for a while. A few needed a minute or two of it.
The Emperor met him personally on his arrival, which Vader found unusual. After walking the ramp from of his shuttle, Vader knelt in front of the Emperor, who was flanked by his Royal Guards, before he took another step. He'd never seen the Emperor wait on a landing platform for anyone before, and his curiosity was building.
The Emperor said, "Rise, my friend," and Vader did. Now Palpatine stood dwarfed by him. Vader always had to incline his head to stay deferential and unimposing during these times.
He'd sensed before that the Royal Guards didn't trust him; this time they regarded him warily, though these days with somewhat less suspicion that he could feel through the Force. He knew they still found him needlessly threatening; someone who might knock over the Emperor if he got to close, or go into a fit of rage at any moment. But when they were dismissed by the Emperor, they left without hesitation.
"Follow me, apprentice," Palpatine said. Vader trailed him obediently into the palace, turning eventually through a seldom used corridor which lacked the customary extent of elegant decor. Eventually they entered a wing he didn't recognize at all, and descended traditional stone steps; marbled, the red veins were almost black.
Vader's knees ached as they walked and he fought down an anxious vertigo that instinctively rose in him. The old-fashioned design of the Imperial Palace was one reason he usually had to be summoned there. Every step had to be executed carefully and his knee joints ground bone and flesh against his prosthetics. Yet this was worse than the usual homage to tradition: the stairs continued on past the few charmingly antique steps. What could be down here not worth a lift ride?
At the bottom of the stairs, Palpatine led him through an antechamber, and into a large room, sparingly furnished in a sharply angular style. The answer to his question: shelves of books. Many were leather-bound tomes, while some more contemporarily stored data. A few display cases in the center of the room held scrolls, paper fragments, or Sith holocrons.
Palpatine said nothing, but went to inspect one of the cases, and laid a feeble-looking hand on the transparent casing. He didn't glance at Vader as he pondered over it.
Perhaps he wanted Vader to search the room on his own. Somewhat awkwardly, he navigated two of the display cases and went to the wall of books at his left. He didn't recognize the lettering on the spines. Moving to the next shelf, he found some titles in Aurebesh, though he still didn't recognize the words.
Not certain what Palpatine expected from him, he fell back into his role as apprentice and asked, "Master, what do you want me to see?"
"Can't you guess?" Palpatine smiled wanly. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You are a man of deeds, Lord Vader, not words. Although that is not entirely your fault." He moved from the display case and stood beside him. "The Jedi were careful of what they allowed in their records, and more so what they allowed their students to read."
"These are all Sith teachings, Master?"
"Most are written by the Sith, but some are even older; copies of documents from the very early masters and philosophers of the Dark Side of the Force. The original writings for those are gone now, but saved here by diligent students who copied them down before their destruction. This room contains all the Sith Masters have preserved of our history and our doctrine. I have personally read everything at least once."
"Everything?"
"It isn't as impossible as it looks, especially for an eager learner. You will accomplish the same in time."
Vader's breath hitched slightly as he snapped his head back to Palpatine. The mask prevented him from betraying his expression, but no doubt his shock echoed briefly in the Force, especially given their proximity. "All of them?" he said.
"Of course, Lord Vader. You are the apprentice. The only Sith apprentice. And the role of the apprentice is to learn. Because the way of the Sith requires only two of us, the entirety of the knowledge of the Sith and the Dark Side falls upon us to study and retain. After all, what if some of these artifacts should be lost? We must be not only the custodians of this knowledge but also its experts. What these books contain is too valuable to store in droids, or even allow inquisitors to see in certain circumstances. The knowledge here is the burden of you and I alone."
"I don't recognize most of what I see." Vader reached for a particularly old tome. When Palpatine didn't stay his hand, he drew it from the shelf. Its vellum pages has been inscribed with thin, spidery symbols.
"You will in time, when you learn the languages of the Sith."
Vader started. Languages. Plural.
"Yes." Palpatine sensed his concern. He smiled. "The Sith are a very long-lived order and over time we separated ourselves from the galaxy with our own native tongue, and over time various dialects and branches. Do not fear, Lord Vader. All of the tools you will need to access our knowledge are here."
"But perhaps I should start with the holocrons, before these obscure books…"
"Why, apprentice, obviously most of the holocrons are in the Sith tongues as well. They will be just as inaccessible to you."
Palpatine waved him over to one of the displays and opened it with a push on the left side of the casing. He extracted the holocron and activated it. The shaky image of the author greeted them in a rough but eloquent speech. "Dzworokka yun; nyâshqûwai, nwiqûwai. Wotok tsawakmidwanottoi, yuntok hyarutmidwanottoi."
"Always two, there are," Palpatine said in Basic, his voice oddly low and reverent. "No more, no less; a master, and an apprentice."
That Vader recognized. "Who is the figure, Master?" he asked.
"Darth Bane. You will learn more about him. He contributed much to our way of life, as well as our duty to bring Sith supremacy to the galaxy."
"I will learn all of the Sith masters?"
"Of course."
"How long will that take?"
Palpatine smiled patiently and put away the holocron. "Do not worry, Lord Vader; you will have the rest of your life to absorb it all."
~.~.~
Vader returned to his ship and wished it wasn't a shuttle. He wanted to hide in his hyperbaric chamber. With him were several digital copies to read through, as well as a holocron from some ancient Sith Lord to consult. Palpatine wanted to start conversing with him in Sith in half a standard month. He wasn't going to be able to work on his TIE hardly at all once back on Mustafar. Gingerly, he looked at the Sith Grammar, and balked when he realized it was an agglutinative language, unlike Huttese or Basic.
As a padawan in the Jedi temple, he'd never been very good at studying or visiting the library. The Jedi had been bookish philosophers. Strange that the carnal Sith were, in the end, no different.
Now he would have to endure the same process all over again.
(Tbc?! For Vader, at least, yes.)
