Unmaking

"No," Elara said.

The Admiral blinked. "What did you say?"

Elara reached up and ripped the leather gloves from her hands. She threw them on the deck.

"I said," she raised her voice, letting the anger flood her veins, "No."

She didn't run for the Chain. She ran for the deck.

The Admiral laughed. "You stupid child. You can't fight iron with flesh."

Elara dropped to her knees. She didn't touch the Constructs. She slammed her bare palms onto the brass bolts that held the *Rot-Wood's* starboard planking together.

"Rot," she screamed.

The magic surged out of her, not a trickle, but a flood. It wasn't accidental. It was targeted. It was violent.

The heavy iron bolts holding the starboard section of the ship together vaporized instantly.

With a groan of tortured wood, the deck collapsed.

The three Constructs standing there, too heavy to adjust, fell through the sudden hole, plummeting into the cargo hold and crashing through the hull into the sea.

The Admiral stumbled, grabbing a railing to stay upright. "You witch!"

Silas was free. He scrambled up, coughing. "Elara! The Chain!"

Elara scrambled up. The *Rot-Wood* was listing, wounded by her own hand, but still alive. The massive black link of the Chain of Silence loomed right next to the railing.

She sprinted toward it.

"Stop her!" the Admiral shrieked, drawing his pistol.

Silas threw himself in front of the shot. The bullet took him in the shoulder, spinning him around, but he didn't fall. "Do it, Elara!"

Elara leaped onto the railing. She threw herself at the Chain.

She wrapped her arms around the link. It was cold, slimy, and radiated a magic that tried to push her away. It whispered to her that she was small, that she was weak, that she was a sinner.

* I am not a sinner,* she thought. *I am the end.*

She pressed her bare chest, her cheek, her palms against the Star-Metal.

"Break," she whispered.

She poured everything into it. Her years of silence. Her loneliness. Her rage.

The black metal shrieked. It didn't rust; it screamed. Cracks appeared, glowing white hot. The vibration threw Elara back onto the deck of the *Rot-Wood*.

With a sound like a thunderclap that shattered the sky, the Chain exploded.