"Then I went off for the Cave of Shadows, and . . . ." Wini said, finishing up the story.
"And you never came back," Gobo said. "Wow."
"It's been eating at me ever since," Wini said. "I hated to do it . . . ."
"But you had to," Lou said. "Who knows what she would have done if you refused."
"Though it still doesn't explain this one thing," Gobo said. "Why does she have a picture of you in her cave, or whatever it is she calls it?"
"She likes to keep a record of those whom she's donated her 'services' to," Wini explained.
"That would explain it," Gobo said. "I still can't get over the story, though. I never knew Wembley was conceived magically! He must be the only creature in the universe that was!"
"I don't know about that," Wini said. "I've been trying to find an alternative in order to get Wembley off the hook of having to become the Fairy Lord. I just need you two to get his doll from the Eternity Tree, and place it in the castle of Fraggledonia. It will bring him back to Fraggle Rock, but I don't know how it will do it. I already told you, I'm magically bound by Lilith from doing it myself."
"We understand, Wini," Lou said. "And don't worry! We'll get Wembley out of this fix!"
And with that, Gobo and Lou ran through the gateway, into the Nexus, and down the stairway to the forge and telescope room. Gobo used the book to turn day into night, while Lou climbed the ladder and loaded one of the lenses into the telescope. Then she and Gobo turned the telescope until they reached the correct constellation and a mold appeared. They did this three more times, and then went directly to the forge to make the Dream Jewels. The first one was a musical note with two red gems and a yellow gem. The second was a fish with one blue gem, one yellow gem, and one clear gem. The third depicted the Tower of Dreams in the Fairy Ream. It had two blue gems and one clear gem. The fourth and final one was a mermaid with three red gems, however, Gobo and Lou didn't know what a mermaid was.
"What is that?" Lou asked.
"Looks like a Silly Creature crossed with a fish," Gobo said. "You know, like a Merggle."
"Oh. Anyway, should we open the gateway to the Eternal Tree first?"
"No, I think we should make the potion at the Herbalist's House first. Wini said we're going to need it to find Wembley's Fraggle doll."
"Right. Let's go."
The two Fraggles went back up the stairs to the Nexus, and Gobo pulled the right lever to return the Herbalist's House gateway. Once they arrived, Gobo put the page into the book.
"Root shriveling potion," he read. "And just our luck, more scrambled words."
"You didn't expect it to be that easy, did you?" Lou asked, picking up a pencil. Once she unscrambled the words, Gobo went to the shelf.
"We need heated red rose petals," Lou said, "heated lemongrass, rose liquid essence, crushed and heated orange peel, and grey rose seeds."
"Check!" Gobo shouted, and he immediately got to work. Once he got the potion mixed, he poured it into a bottle, and corked it.
"Okay," he said. "Now back to the Nexus to find the gateway to the Eternal Tree."
The two Fraggles ran through the gateway and Lou began pulling the left lever to find the gateway they needed. There was one gateway left, and the gems they needed to match was one yellow, and two purple gems. They looked at the Dream Jewels and contemplated what to do. Finally, Gobo chose the tower jewel, and the music jewel. After using the device to turn the gems in their correct positions, the gateway opened, and the two Fraggles walked through it, but there was nothing there.
"I don't see anything, do you?" Lou asked.
"No," Gobo said, leaning his hand on a wall. "I hope this isn't some kind of trick! Maybe we should go back to Wini and tell her about this before . . . ."
Before Gobo could finish his sentence, the wall he was leaning against opened, and he fell over backwards.
"Oof!" he shouted.
"Gobo, are you okay?" Lou asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Gobo said, standing up and brushing himself off. "Darn hidden doors!"
"Hey, look! It's Wembley's doll!"
Lou reached into the hidden doorway, and tried to grab Wembley's stuffed Fraggle, but it was so tangled up in roots, she couldn't budge it. She stopped after awhile, because she didn't want to wind up ripping the doll's arm off.
"Weird," she said. "It's like those roots are holding it captive."
"Good thing we made the root shriveling potion first," Gobo said, uncorking his bottle. He poured the potion on the roots, and they shriveled up immediately. Then Lou was able to grab the doll.
"Now back to the castle!" Lou shouted.
Gobo nodded, and he and Lou raced into the Nexus, and pulled the lever that would open the gateway to the Fraggledonian castle. Once they got it, they ran in. A crystal ball was sitting at on top of the bottom step. There was an image of Gobo and Wembley's room in it, and Mokey, Red, and Boober were there as well.
"Hey, guys!" Gobo shouted.
"Gobo, is that you?" Red asked. "Where are you?"
"The Fraggledonian castle," Gobo said. "You have any idea why this crystal ball is here with us?"
"The Trash Heap probably sent it there," Mokey said.
"Do you guys have one there with you, or can you just hear us?" Lou asked.
"No, we don't have any crystal ball with us," Boober said. "We can only hear your voices. But keep it down before someone walks in on us and tries to lock us up because we're talking to voices that aren't there, okay?"
"Oh Boober!" Red groaned. "Have you found Wembley yet?"
"Sort of," Lou said. "We just have to do this one thing, and hopefully, it'll all be over! Ready, Gobo?"
"Ready!" Gobo shouted.
Gobo walked over to the staircase, and placed the Fraggle doll next to the bottom step on the floor. Once it was in place, sparkles began to fly up from the floor until they surrounded the doll. A bright light began to glow from the crystal ball, drowning out the image of Mokey, Boober, and Red.
"Hey, what's that light?" Red asked.
"What's going on?" Mokey asked.
"I can't see!" Boober shouted. "We'll all be blind! Aaaahhhh!"
Finally, the sparkles disappeared, and so had Wembley's doll. Gobo and Lou looked into the crystal ball. The light was beginning to fade out. Once it was completely gone, there was Wembley in his bed, sleeping peacefully, with his doll tucked underneath one arm.
"We did it!" Gobo shouted. "Yay! It's over!"
"Not quite," Red said. She had climbed the ladder up to Wembley's bed, grabbed his shoulder, and started shaking him. "He's still under that sleeping spell!"
"What do we do now?" Lou asked.
"I guess we go back for more instructions," Gobo said, shrugging. "Come on, Lou!"
Gobo put the crystal ball down, and he and Lou went back to the Nexus to to underwater retreat. When they got there, they found Wini putting a cork in a bottle.
"Hi," she said. "Did it work?"
"Yeah, it worked," Gobo said. "But Red said he was still under Lilith's sleeping spell."
"Yeah, I kind of had a feeling he was," Wini said, and she handed Gobo the bottle. "Here, there's some awakening potion left."
"Great!" Gobo shouted. Then he grabbed Wini's hand, and began running toward the gateway. "Come on, let's go home! Wait until Wembley sees you, Wini! He'll be so happy you're finally back!"
Before Gobo could make it to the gateway, Wini extracted her hand, and turned away. Gobo stopped, and looked at her oddly.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Don't you want to come back to Fraggle Rock with us?"
"I can't, Gobo," Wini said.
"You can't? What do you mean you can't?! Of course you can! Come on, Lilith isn't around! We can escape through the Nexus to the Fraggledonian castle and go back to Fraggle Rock before she even notices you're gone! And if she does follow you to Fraggle Rock, we'll protect you!"
"No, Gobo, it isn't that."
"Look, if you're worried about what everyone's gonna say about what happened, and where you've been, don't worry about it. We don't have to tell anyone. It's none of their business, anyway!"
"No, Gobo! Please try to understand, I can't go back to Fraggle Rock! It's because of the deal I made with Lilith! I'm magically bound to remain her servant forever! I can't simply escape just like that!"
"You're kidding. Of course you can!"
Wini looked at Gobo, and walked over to the gateway. When she tried to step through it, sparks flew out and blocked her path. Gobo and Lou cringed. The sparks subsided when Wini stood away from the gateway.
"Wow," Lou said. "You really can't escape!"
"It was part of the deal I made with Lilith," Wini said. "There's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing anyone can do about it, unless they pay the price. The price I paid for wanting a baby is my freedom. I couldn't even imagine what the price would be if I asked Lilith for another favor! What if involved Wembley? I couldn't bear it if something awful happened to him!"
"So there's nothing we can do about it?" Gobo asked.
"Not unless you want to spend your life as a trash heap or worse for eternity," Wini said. "That's what happened to our Madam Trash Heap. I found out Lilith turned her into a trash heap, but not a sentient one. She came to life when her two shills, Philo and Gunge, came along. Nobody knows how it happened, but it did. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I'm only a servant, as opposed to a pile of garbage."
"But isn't it awful being a slave?" Gobo asked. "I know I'd hate it!"
"It's not as bad as it sounds," Wini said, shrugging. "Despite how mean Lilith looks, and acts, she's really not so bad. Most of what she has me do is clean her mansion, fetch things for her, domestic chores, that sort of thing. She lets me read her magic books, and play around with mixing potions at the Herbalist's House, as long as I don't blow anything up. She doesn't work me too hard, and she's never beaten me or struck me, or anything like that. She doesn't yell or scream at me if I accidentally do something wrong, she doesn't make me call her 'mistress,' or 'your majesty' or anything like that. She won't let me call her Lilith to her face, but she's perfectly happy with me calling her just plain 'ma'am.' She takes me with her wherever she goes, and she allows me to have tea with her in the tea room."
"That's probably why there was radish tea in that teapot," Lou said.
"Right," Wini said. "She always makes sure I have radishes. She even lets me look in on Wembley from time to time through her crystal ball."
"But what about that sleeping spell you were under when we found you?" Gobo asked.
"It wasn't Lilith's idea to do that," Wini said. "She was following orders from the Dream Librarian. Until the next Fairy Lord is found, every Fairy takes orders from the Dream Librarian. When they found out I was trying to help you two get Wembley back to Fraggle Rock, the Dream Librarian demanded Lilith put me under the sleeping spell."
Suddenly, the three Fraggles heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Wini gasped.
"It's Lilith!" she shouted. "Quickly, you two must go now! She mustn't find you here!"
"Okay," Gobo said. "And thanks for your help, Wini!"
"I just wish there was something we could do to give you your freedom," Lou said.
"I can't allow you to," Wini said. "You two mean so much to my little Wembley, I don't want him to lose you in his life. Just promise me one thing. Don't tell anyone where I am. Don't tell anyone you even saw me. If Wembley were to find out, he'd only try to find me and make a deal with Lilith. I don't want him to become a servant for the rest of his life."
"We won't," Gobo said. "We promise."
"Here, you'd better keep these," Lou said, handing Wini the Dream Jewels. "It'll be easier for Wembley to stay away from here if he can't access the gateway."
"Thank you," Wini said. "I'll figure out how to close the gateway in the Fraggledonian castle so he can't even access the Nexus. Now go!"
Gobo and Lou waved goodbye, and ran into the gateway as fast as they could. The minute they were gone, the gateway disappeared, and the door opened. Lilith walked into the room, and crossed the bridge to the glass enclosure.
"They left, did they?" she asked. "Hmm. Too bad. I would have liked to have met them. Very resourceful little Fraggles, I must say. I admire that in a potential adversary. Oh well. At least they left the Dream Jewels. Give them to me."
"Yes, ma'am," Wini said, handing over the Dream Jewels. "You knew they were here all along?"
"Of course I did," Lilith said, taking the Dream Jewels. She waved her hand, and they disappeared into thin air. "If I didn't want them here, I would have destroyed the notes you left for them. I told you, I don't want to have to listen to orders of a Fraggle. Especially an indecisive little one like that son of yours! Oh well. It's all over now. Come along, let's have a cup of tea."
"Yes, ma'am."
Wini stood up, and followed Lilith down the corridors to the tea room. They sat down at the table, and Lilith levitated the teapot. There was something different about her, but Wini wasn't quite sure what it was.
"I have news for you, Wini," Lilith said. "Very good news, in fact. We'll be able to fulfill the prophecy, and we won't even have to go after your son again."
"Really?" Wini asked. "You found another creature who was conceived by Fairy magic? What kind of a creature is it? Oh, tell me, ma'am! Please tell me!"
"Patience, my dear, patience," Lilith said. "You'll find out when the time is right. But it's going to take awhile. It will be nine months before he arrives, and then it will take another eighteen years before he can assume the title of Fairy Lord."
Wini was still a little confused, when she noticed Lilith was patting her stomach. Then the realization hit her. Lilith was pregnant. She had used the spell she had given Wini years ago on herself in order to fulfill the prophecy.
"Oh, that's wonderful, ma'am!" Wini shouted, happily. "Just wonderful!"