NPE while loading permission nodes

[Focusvity]

Not quite sure if this occurs on the official server but whenever I start up the local test server, I'm getting this NPE error

[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: java.lang.NullPointerException
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at me.totalfreedom.totalfreedommod.permissions.PermissionManager.loadPermissionNodes(PermissionManager.java:58)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at me.totalfreedom.totalfreedommod.permissions.PermissionManager.onStart(PermissionManager.java:27)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at me.totalfreedom.totalfreedommod.FreedomServiceHandler.startServices(FreedomServiceHandler.java:33)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at me.totalfreedom.totalfreedommod.TotalFreedomMod.onEnable(TotalFreedomMod.java:274)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin.setEnabled(JavaPlugin.java:263)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPluginLoader.enablePlugin(JavaPluginLoader.java:380)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at org.bukkit.plugin.SimplePluginManager.enablePlugin(SimplePluginManager.java:483)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_16_R2.CraftServer.enablePlugin(CraftServer.java:501)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_16_R2.CraftServer.enablePlugins(CraftServer.java:415)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at net.minecraft.server.v1_16_R2.MinecraftServer.loadWorld(MinecraftServer.java:468)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at net.minecraft.server.v1_16_R2.DedicatedServer.init(DedicatedServer.java:237)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at net.minecraft.server.v1_16_R2.MinecraftServer.w(MinecraftServer.java:939)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at net.minecraft.server.v1_16_R2.MinecraftServer.lambda$a$0(MinecraftServer.java:177)
[13:12:05] [Server thread/WARN]: 	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Line: https://github.com/TFPatches/TotalFreedomMod/blob/development/src/main/java/me/totalfreedom/totalfreedommod/permissions/PermissionManager.java#L58