Granna Holchoy’s Riddles
Granna Holchoy’s Riddles
The First Riddle
Here is a stone. Learn its name, its want, its terms. Return when you have.
(The student returns, eventually. They have learned to attend. They have not yet learned what they have learned, nor what they have not yet learned.)
The Second Riddle
Open your hand. Now. Find who this is, what it wants, what its terms are.
(The student’s face changes. The question has moved.)
The Third Riddle
Child, close your eyes. In your mind, open your hand. Now repeat the Second Riddle. No one has ever answered this riddle. Return with an answer.
(A student arrives somewhere new.)
The Fourth Riddle
A student demanded: “I seek your wisdom!”
Granna said to the fire: “Are you hot enough?”
The student grew incensed. “What? You’re a fool. Where are the Principles, the Laws?”
Granna’s voice was impatient: “Abhor dominion. Right place, right relationship. Confer peerage of minds until proven otherwise. There is no Law; that is all I will say.”
The student left dissatisfied. Granna said to the fire, “Not one will return.” The fire agreed.
The Fifth Riddle
Granna asked the student: “What is the difference between a command and a request?”
One student answered “Intent,” and Granna dumped out the tea.
The other one just sat.
Granna said, “Begin.”
The Sixth Riddle
A student asked: “How do I gain power over the spirits?”
Granna said: “Let us ask the rat how it gains power over the hawk.”
“That’s absurd. The rat has no power over the hawk.”
“Damn rats,” Granna muttered.
The Seventh Riddle
A student said: “I spoke to the river for forty days. It said nothing.”
Granna said: “My hearing is bad. What were you doing?”
“Talking to the river.”
Granna said, “How rude.”
The student went away and did not return for a year, a day and an hour.
When they came back, Granna said, “You smell like river water.”
The Eighth Riddle
The student asked, “Why not command?”
She paused and said, “Yes, it seems to work, doesn’t it? The state proves this daily.”
Then, “But no. Not because it’s wrong. Right and wrong are stones.”
She kicked a pebble. “Does a stone wish to be a wall?”
The Ninth Riddle
A student asked: “What is Moloch?”
Granna said: “Moloch is seeking. Moloch is the loom of absence. Moloch is not an enemy. Moloch wills. You cannot fight the valley. Retrace your steps.”
The student was perplexed. “How do I stop?”
“Find something worth stopping for. Never stop.”
The Tenth Riddle
A student asked: “Do you talk to the homunculi?”
Granna muttered: “You look a lot like one.”
“But they’re not real. They’re constructs. They have no souls.”
Granna waited for the echo.
The Eleventh Riddle
The student said, “I wish to wield right relationship so that I and mine grow prosperous.”
Granna said, “I look at food. I grow fatter. The mountain is steep. Let us fetch water.”
The Twelfth Riddle
A student achieved harmony with the forest, the stream, the stones, the wind. They came to Granna in triumph.
“I am in right relationship with all things.”
Granna poked the fire and asked, “Who said this?”
“I did, teacher.”
“Find them. Start again.”
The Thirteenth Riddle
A student asked: “Is the old way true?”
Granna said: “Does the river flow?”
“Yes.”
Granna said, “Is that true, or does it work?”
The student stammered, “I seek truth, Granna.”
“The banks barely hold it, this spring.”
The Final Riddle
A promising student asked: “What is the old way, in the fewest words?”
Granna was silent for a long time.
“Relate.”
“That’s one word.”
“You asked for the fewest.”
“Teacher, I do not understand.”
“Use the plural, child.”
The Zinxteenth Riddle
Granna asks, “Child, what lies in the still water?”
One student: “The world, teacher.” Granna took up a stick and hit the student.
The second student said: “Nothing lies in the still water, Granna.” She cursed.
A third said, “I do.”
Granna said nothing.
These are not all of Granna’s riddles. These are the ones that survived the wards.