Balder came into the room without waiting for your reply. It was what he did every time. He was expecting you to be on the bed ignoring him. That had been your latest tactic in getting him to go away and leave you alone. It hadn't been any more successful than any of your other attempts.

He was not expecting you to run up to him sobbing. You tried to wrap your arms around him, and purposely clanged the chain between your wrists into his stomach, trying to look the part of the pathetic little human. You had never tried to cry on demand before, but you had enough painful memories to take your pick from right now that you managed to call the tears you needed for this act.

Balder hesitated for a moment, as if he didn't want to trust your sudden mood change, but he responded soon when your tears didn't stop. When you made yourself the most pathetic helpless version of yourself as you could. You curled your hands up to your chest, and though it pained you to let him to it, you let him wrap his arms around you and pull you too him as he made soothing noises. "Shh, pet. Why are you crying?" he asked softly. You sobbed awhile longer, until he stepped back, holding you at arm's distance. "What happened? What is wrong?"

You held out your arm to him, sniffling and showed him the first of the two illusions Loki had made for you. This one had been the hardest illusion request, too, but the most vital to your plan. It had killed you to ask Loki to make it look like he had broken the soulbond. The soulbond marks on your arm had an illusion on them to make them look like they were all gray and dead.

Balder's eyes widened and you put on the most heartbroken, pathetic, expression you could muster. "Did my brother do this?" He asked gently, oh so kindly. His false kindness made you want to puke.

You nodded, not bothering to elaborate. The less you had to speak, the more likely he was to believe the lie. He pulled you back into his arms. You thought you saw a glimmer of a smirk on his face. "I warned you that he would turn on you," he said as he held you gently while you faked more heartbroken sobs. It was easier when your face was hidden against his chest.

"I-I'm sorry," you whimpered against his chest. You cursed that power again for the fact that he was the only one it didn't work against.

He shh-ed you gently and rubbed your back. "I know, pet, I know he confused you. Now let's get you out of here and properly taken care of," he said so softly and gently, like he actually cared. You knew better. He was a creepy asshole and you had no idea how Frigga had raised someone who turned out like this.

You sniffled, and nodded, relieved he was buying the act so far. He turned you to lead you from the basement. You let him walk you back upstairs and tried to memorize where the doors to the outside were as you walked. You stayed hunched in on yourself, the epitome of pathetic-little-heartbroken-human.

Balder kept trying to comfort you the entire time, though it didn't do any good.

You ended in a large, lavish bedroom on the second floor of the mansion. "I told you I would take care of you, little pet," he told you as you pretended to be impressed with the room. Sure, it was fancy, but he was creepy and evil. "You're going to be good, now that you have nowhere else to go, right, pet?" he asked, trying to sound gentle and kind. His words came off creepier than ever. You nodded and looked pathetic. He removed the manacles from your wrists, taking care of one of your obstacles. You rubbed your sore, raw wrists. "There is a nice hot bath waiting for you," he gestured to a side room that you assumed must be a bathroom. "We will get those wrists healed up when you are clean and feeling like yourself again," His words sounded nice, but you knew that you were just disgusting from having not bathed since he kidnapped you. You nodded and stepped towards the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind you.

You soaked in the bath for a long time, trying to make sure you had your next moves planned and set in stone. You still needed to get the bangle off of your arm. Your powers were still bound until you did. You also needed to get out of here before he tried to force a soulbond on you. You didn't have a lot of time.

You had an idea if you couldn't get to your dagger sheath soon, though. You just hoped it didn't come to that.

You finally left the bath once you were clean and you knew Balder would be getting impatient soon. You couldn't hide in there forever. So you got out of the bath and found a simple shift of a dress waiting for you. You grumbled that he could at least have given you a real dress, but you wouldn't complain where he could hear. You ran a comb through your hair and shyly left the bathroom to find Balder waiting in the bedroom. You weren't surprised to see him there. He was sitting at a small table and chairs in the room. The table was laden with food. He gestured for you to sit at the other chair, but didn't get up from his. It was such a contrast to both Loki's and Thor's behaviors and manners, that you wondered briefly why he had turned out so differently from them. You hesitated, scared and shy, but he bid you again to sit with him. You took the seat. "Eat, pet," he told you in a tone that was supposed to be gentle. You carefully made a small plate of food, despite the fact that you were starving. You were treating this like the most terrifying first date ever. He dug into his own overflowing plate of food while you were much more careful, trying to seem dainty and lady-like. It was hard and you were terrified he would see through your act.

After he had eaten his fill, he came over to you with a healing salve, which he put on your wrists and the last of the healing bruise on your face. All three healed instantly.

You were also grateful to your wonderful Trickster of a soulbond. Loki had crafted the illusion on the soulbond marks well. Illusions generally couldn't be touched, but these were such thin lines that Balder's finger would cover the entire line if he tried to touch the illusion, and the illusion would just bounce back into place the moment he stopped touching it. He wouldn't be able to see that it was an illusion.

When Balder was healing your face, he took the opportunity to look at your eyes. This was the other illusion from Loki. Your eyes looked to be as jet black as they had been the day you saved Pepper's life. "What happened to your eyes, pet?" Balder asked.

You whimpered softly. "Loki," you whimpered. "When he-" you gestured to your left arm and the gray soulbond marks.

"He stole your power," Balder filled in, making the assumption you had wanted him to. You looked away, embarrassed. The trick to a good lie was to tell the truth. Loki did do this to your eyes, at the same time as he made the illusion on your arm. Balder just came to the wrong conclusion of how and why. He would believe the lie because he was the one who told it. He sighed. Whatever his plans for today were, they were now ruined by your jet black eyes. "Go take a nap, pet. You need to rest before you can help me with my plans,"

He used magic to clear the table and swept from the room. You heard him talking to a guard outside of it.

You weren't surprised he wasn't leaving you completely alone. You went to the other room and laid on the bed, which was admittedly soft. You was sorely tempted to actually take that nap and get some rest, but you needed to make more plans.

Things were going as planned so far, but it wasn't any time to let your guard down.