Asgard's Heart

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I did not set out on life’s great journey with the intention of becoming a demigod. Indeed, when I was a boy growing up on Microworld Achilles in the asteroid belt, it had never occurred to me that such a career choice was possible.

Had I known then what destiny had in mind for me, I might have stayed home and spared myself a great many hazards—an exciting life was not something that I particularly craved. On the other hand, now I know how incomprehensively vast the Great Scheme of Things really is, and how very difficult it is for a single individual to amount to anything within that Scheme, I cannot help but feel a certain sense of privilege in having become what I am.

I claim no great credit for the fact that out of all the billions of people who happened to be within Asgard at the critical moment of its history, fate selected me for the crucial role; I was desperately unlucky to be saddled with the responsibility, and fantastically fortunate not to make a mess of things. But the impossible had to be done, and circumstance determined that I was the one who had to do it.

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