Dimentio, Nastasia, Tippi, and Count Bleck were all standing on the edge of the pit looking down at the village below. For that was what it had become, a fully functional village, with houses and residents and roles to fill and work to do. The archaeologists had uncovered a great deal of it, the well was coming along nicely, and the buildings were being repaired and restored to like-new condition.

"I don't get it," said Count Bleck. "It's like they all just gave up their ambition and decided they wanted to live in this village."

At that moment, Dique scurried behind them. Count Bleck grabbed his shoulder. "Hold on a moment, please," he said.

"Uh, okay?" said Dique. "What's going on?"

"Nastasia, would you be so kind as to attempt one of your patented brainwashing stares on this fellow?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that." Nastasia pulled up her glasses and there was a blinding flash of white light that hit the glitter covering Dique and sent the light dancing in every direction. For just a moment it was spectacular, but it was over almost as soon as it began.

"Is that all?" asked Dique. "Can I go now?"

"Yeah, you're done," said Nastasia. "Go back to what you were doing."

Dique continued scurrying along, back to Tent City.

"It doesn't work," said Nastasia. "Yeah, so I don't know what's going on, but that was the strongest blast I had. He should be down on his knees or whatever he has pledging his eternal and undying loyalty to you, Count. But it looks like he didn't even notice."

"That's odd," said Tippi. "The only person I've never seen your brainwashing work in is…" and here she turned to her husband, "well, you, Blumiere."

"Do you think they could be under some sort of hypnosis that's more powerful than yours, Nastasia?" asked Count Bleck.

"I'm almost certain of it," said Nastasia, "but I don't know what they all have in common- including Mimi and O'Chunks- that we don't share."

All of them were quiet for a moment as thought.

Finally, Dimentio spoke up: "The glitter."

All of them immediately turned to the hole to see the residents below. Each and every single one of them was covered in glitter. And there was Glitter Sue, still lying on her lawn chair, idly waving her wand and letting glitter cascade from it.

"Glitter Sue," said Count Bleck. "That would explain why you are not affected, and Timpani, but Nastasia and I do have glitter on ourselves."

"It's possible I'm immune because of my own brainwashing power," said Nastasia. "And, well, I never was able to use my powers on you, even if I wanted to."

"That's true," said Count Bleck. "Wait- when you wanted to?"

"But how is she actually doing it?" asked Nastasia.

"Obviously she's controlling them with the wand," said Dimentio. "But to what end? And, more importantly, how do we stop it?"

"Perhaps if we were to get the glitter off..." Tippi was thinking out loud.

Nastasia snorted. "Sorry… but have you ever tried to get glitter off? Yeah, it sticks everywhere."

"That's true."

"Tippi, you're reasonable," said Nastasia. "Why don't you try talking to Glitter Sue while the rest of us cook up a plan B?"

"Good idea," said Tippi. "I'll be back soon."

Tippi fluttered down into the pit and ended up hovering next to Glitter Sue's head. Now she was sitting next to Professor Sullivan Bluth, who was writing away in his notebook, pencil clutched in his teeth.

"See?" Glitter Sue was saying. "They've all been 'tainted' by your modern ways, but they can still give you an accurate look at what life was like for me."

Tippi cleared her throat. "So… this is what life was like for you, then?"

Glitter Sue stuck the end of her wand in her ear hole and dug around a little. "Is there an echo out here? Yeah, this is how we lived. Look at it. Isn't it lovely?"

"It is," said Tippi. "You must have been very happy here."

"Oh, I was."

"So I can see why you'd want that again."

"M-hm."

"But don't you think it isn't fair to everyone else?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… well, they're all doing what you want them to. But they can't do what they want to do."

"Yes, they can. This is what they want to do."

"But isn't that only because you made them want to?"

"Whether or not they were forced to want to, the truth of the matter is that they want to. If you wanted something very badly, and I told you you didn't really want it and only thought you did, would that automatically make you stop wanting it? Like, if I told you you didn't really want to be with your hot husband?"

"I suppose not," said Tippi, "and thank you, he is quite the looker, but I still don't think it's morally correct to force someone to want something, and then simply sit back and say, well they want it. Because they wouldn't have on their own. You're still doing something wrong."

"I disagree," said Glitter Sue.

At that time, Dimentio drifted from the edge of the pit to straight over their heads, letting his toes dangle below him as was his way. "Very interesting," said Dimentio, "and any other time I would be perfectly happy to discuss abstract morality with you, but for right now I think I'd just like to end your game." He brought up a large purple and yellow dazzle ball between his hands.

Glitter Sue held up her wand and it began to glow. At that, every single 'villager' dropped what they were doing and moved in around her, effectively giving her a meat shield. "If you don't like it when I quote-unquote 'control' them, then I'm certain you don't want them to come to any harm. Are you ready to smash everyone to get through to me?"

"I am," said Dimentio, lifting up the ball.

"I'm not!" Count Bleck barked. "Dimentio! Get back here."

Dimentio lowered his hands and the magic ball dissipated. "As you wish." He floated back to the ground next to Count Bleck. "I thought it was at least worth a try."

"It was," said Count Bleck.

"What I want to know," said Nastasia slowly, "is where that wand gets its power."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, think about it. She was an underground statue for something like a thousand years, right? So it seems reasonable to assume that the only reason she didn't break free was because she couldn't."

"Yes, Count Bleck agrees that's reasonable."

"So why now? Why when we dug her up did she suddenly come to life? Why after a few weeks was she only just able to start using her magic to speak our language? Why, if she's been spreading glitter this whole time, is she only now using it to control anyone? What's the common link?"

Count Bleck thought about every time he'd seen Glitter Sue: the evening when they had dug her up, in the trailer with the blinds closed…

… in the evening, when the sun was setting so low that the entire dig site was covered in shadow…

… in the trailer, where when the blinds were drawn, the statue moved…

… in the sun, for the first time, when the stone chipped away and revealed the toad underneath.

"The sun," said Count Bleck slowly.

"Beg pardon?" asked Tippi.

"The sun, repeated Count Bleck! She didn't start showing any signs of magic until the first time she was put in the sun! She's a desert magician who gets her magic from the sun!"

"That makes sense!" Nastasia sounded excited. "If her wand needs the sun to charge, then she wouldn't have had any magic trapped in her house or underground."

"And if that's true," Dimentio continued, "then if we wait until nightfall, then we can force her to use up her remaining magic and then we'll have her!"

"Once she doesn't have a shield, we can send her somewhere with no sun until we figure out what to do with her," said Count Bleck.

"Somewhere like, say, Castle Bleck?" suggested Dimentio.

Count Bleck tapped his face above his mouth.

"I don't get that gesture," said Dimentio.

"Don't worry about it, said Nastasia.

"We might try teleporting her now," said Dimentio, "as that wouldn't hurt her guards."

"Possibly not, but she still might lash out. I'd rather play it safe and at least attempt to deplete her magic before attempting anything like that."

"All right," said Nastasia. "So. We wait until nightfall."