The Inescapable
The Secret Riddle
You have walked the seven portals. Now answer the one question the labyrinth was built around.
I am the first thing the Architect spoke and the last thing he will see.
I cannot be held, but every hand reaches for me.
I am the black hole's hunger and the white hole's gift.
I am older than the seven liberal arts, yet they were all written to find me.
Grammar names me, Logic proves me, Rhetoric praises me,
Arithmetic counts me, Geometry shapes me,
Music sings me, Astronomy follows me home.
What am I?
Hint for the worthy: The riddle is not a trick. The answer is the simplest, most ancient word for what fills both holes — the bright and the dark — and what the Logos itself is. Try one syllable. Try the thing your eyes are doing right now to read this.