Echo was eventually able to obtain the lives of both Marieke and Kayion from Wyrm. The price of Marie's release was the promise that Marie would agree to give Wyrm a child, something Echo knew Marie would be willing to do, since Marie has no fear of Wyrm. The price for Kayion was to promise Wyrm "access" to the child Echo was carrying at the time. This meant that Wyrm would be allowed to become acquainted with the child, and that neither Echo nor Blood Demon, her beloved and the father of the unborn child, would do or say anything to give the child a negative impression of Wyrm. Since the child was half-demon, Echo agreed.
Marieke's pregnancy was a nightmare for her. Her body swelled terribly, yet she was unable to hold down any food at all, living on water and ice. Fortunately for her, the gestation time for a child of Wyrm is quite short, but by the time the child, Styx, was born, she had made a solemn vow that she would never have children again. Styx, as is natural for Wyrm's offspring, grew to maturity in a matter of less than an hour, before Marie ever awoke after the delivery. When she first saw her son, he appeared to be about the same age as herself.
Echo had feared that Marie would fancy herself in love with Wyrm after being granted the "honor" of presenting him with a child, but to her great relief, the misery of Marieke's pregnancy was so severe that she came out of it actually a bit shy of Wyrm, rather than being more attracted to him.
Meanwhile, Echo's own pregnancy advanced beautifully, thanks to the promise from her half-sister Ilithyia, Goddess of Childbirth, that Echo would have an easy time of it. Even goddesses, however, cannot forestall real-life accidents, and Echo spent many weeks in severe pain while her operator struggled with a serious back injury. Another circumstance that marred her happiness was the constant threatening from Daeus against her life and the lives of both Blood Demon and the unborn child, whom Daeus kept proposing to rip from her womb and devour.
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