A/N: To celebrate my newfound freedom...? Originally posted on tumblr for Ailia's birthday, now edited and uploaded since I have time to do so. This is entirely the product of my imagination so please toss away your own headcanon momentarily to understand it.

Disclaimer: I wouldn't be taking A-levels if I had Sound Horizon...


Seven Cycles

Der erste Zyklus

Death, destruction, darkness.

Giulietta Simone del Viscontie fled through all three of the above as ordered. The del Viscontie family was ruined; nothing was left of the estate that she once called home, save for the attackers who pursued her even now.

For all that they called her a country bumpkin, Giulietta had never strayed past these walls unaccompanied. Now that she was finally out there, alone, her slipper-clad feet knew not of the path that she should take to safety, only the feel of the rough, painful road that her soles were pounding upon, illuminated by the light of raging fires that consumed what little remained.

There were many things Giulietta regretted upon finding herself backing up at the edge of a cliff. For reasons unknown to her, she finds the only regret that consumes her head is that she never learned to make her own way about town.

Still, the one that consumes her heart while she falls into the water is that she would never be the salvation of her family, and she would never be the bride of the man she had so admired in her younger days.

The men who served the future queen waited until her last scream faded into the night air before they set off on the road to Romana, where a most lavish wedding ceremony would welcome them.

And in Romana, Alessandro I would ascend the altar with his bride. Roberia Maria della Firenza was no doubt a beautiful and accomplished songstress, the latter a quality that he could not compromise on. In short, she would be a queen that he could learn to love. He would know nothing of the other songstress that sank beneath the unforgiving waves, the one that he had yet to meet before her untimely demise.

-And for the first time, "she" eluded "his" grasp.


A/N: Part 1 of 7.