[Realm: Álfheimr]
[Location: The Deathless Fortress]
What was the most important thing to a mother?
The answer, for Echidna, was never complex. It was not philosophical, nor did it require deep reflection. A mother valued her children—flesh of her flesh, life born from the cradle of her own body. Whether the child was planned or arrived by chaos, a mother's instinct wrapped around them all the same. A mother created life. A mother nurtured life. And a mother, no matter how monstrous or divine, could not help but yearn to protect it.
She had lived long enough to witness the rise and fall of many things, but motherhood was the one constant in her eternity. Orthrus, Chimera, Sphinx—so many others whose names once shook the world. She had birthed them all, guided them from the fragile spark of infancy to the terrifying force of mature monstrosity. She watched them grow fierce, proud and feared.
Even now, in the quiet dark of her cavern, those instincts remained unchanged.
