The genial smile gradually vanished from Palpatine's face, replaced by utter coldness and gloom. The terrifying aura made Mas Amedda, standing beside him, tremble all over.
He knew this was Darth Malthael's scheme, because the ones originally sent to kill Lorn Pavan had been Darth Malthael and Darth Maul! According to Maul's report at the time, someone had gotten there before him and killed Lorn Pavan. Back then, they had not known of Darth Malthael's existence. It was only later that he connected the dots.
Thus, only he could have obtained Lorn Pavan's recording, hidden it, and handed it over to the Jedi Order. The reason he had not gone directly to expose him to the Jedi Order was likely because he wanted Palpatine and the Jedi Order to fight to mutual destruction.
After all, between Darth Sidious, Darth Malthael, and the Jedi Order, every side wanted the other two dead.
Now, Darth Malthael's plot had clearly achieved its intended effect!
Palpatine had been forced to launch Order 66 ahead of schedule, suffering the Jedi Order's backlash before he had finished consolidating his power, while the Jedi Order still possessed considerable prestige and the Senate had yet to fully submit to him.
This result forced him to devote more effort to dealing with attacks from his political enemies. He also had to make greater political and economic compromises and concessions to preserve his position.
That was not all. What infuriated Palpatine even more was that, upon receiving the slightest hint of trouble from Coruscant, Darth Malthael had actually fled straight to Planet Korriban! His decisiveness and accurate judgment had made Palpatine suspect that Malthael had been on Coruscant all along!
And so, he could only watch as Darth Malthael completed his dark ritual on Planet Korriban! On that very day,