Merlin turns the desert landscape into a luscious grassy area and gains an Apprentice as well as a position as the village healer. One day, a woman named Nimue whose future he cannot see asks him for a favor; her village was burned down by a man named Vortigan, and all she managed to escape with was a handful of middlemist seeds. Her greatest revenge would be for them to prosper in spite of him, and so Merlin uses his magic to create a healthy growth of them, then entering a relationship with Nimue. He wants to propose but is fearful because he is immortal and she isn't, and so the two of them quest to the Flame of Prometheus so that Merlin can remold the holy grail into a sword that is capable of cutting away his magic. When he does so, however, Vortigan arrives and attacks Nimue, causing