Free Rain of Tears by Viola Grace Page B

his eyes. Surprise took over his features. “You are the Rain?”
    “I am. You are the new mayor?”
    “Unrik Hobbs. Mayor elect or mayor by acclimation. I am not quite sure how it worked. I just know that they came to get me and told me I was the new mayor and I had to negotiate with you.”
    “He had you imprisoned?”
    “Me and anyone else who tried to get the people out of this city and out to the countryside where nature still ruled.”
    She cocked her head and got off the mayor’s desk. “Then, take your seat and prepare to learn. This city is going to go in the direction I have tried to steer it for over three hundred years.”
    He blinked and gingerly sat at the desk.
    Reyan reached into her pack and unrolled the plan that she had carried with her for the last six months.
    “What is this?” Unrik pointed at the large, round object drawn outside the city gates, larger than the city by half again.
    “That is the new farm centre. It will be domed, sealed off from outside weather patterns and your weather machines can do what they like to run crops year round.”
    He looked, nodded and dug in the desk for a pen and a straight edge. He started to measure it out and section it, making notations for crops.
    “The dome can house four farming families with the equipment that is needed to run the farms. It is twenty-five kilometres across.” She kept playing with the paperweight, enjoying the glitter of light in the polished glass.
    He sat back and dropped the pen. Depression cascaded over his expression. “We can’t do it. We have neither the money nor the materials to get this dome in place.”
    She nodded. “Can you find four families to man the farms?”
    He shrugged. “Easily. There were four families chained up next to me.”
    “Good. I will make the other call. The Sector Guard will be dropping the dome in two days.”
    He ran his hands through his grubby hair. “You don’t understand. What will we pay them with?”
    She smiled brightly at him. “Me.”
     
    Reyan was tired of constant, fussy maintenance, and she wanted a change of scenery. The Sector Guard had tracked her down, and once she reset the weather on Jarko, she would leave the people to live or die on their own and trot off to a Citadel to learn of other worlds that could use her particular touch.
    Her youngest sister was now with the Citadel, and Destroyer’s note had made her smile. They enjoyed a strange relationship, Rain was designed first, but had been created second. Her aim had been nature manipulation instead of destruction. Even Elemental had been found and was now in a Citadel where she was dispatched with her partner.
    If the Citadel was good enough for her sisters, it was good enough for her.
    She looked out the window and called the rain. The ground would need a start with extra humidity before the dome dropped.
    “You do realise that the city will now be exposed to the standard weather patterns of this area? You will always have enough food and water, but you need to alter your clothing for the wind storms that were endemic to this area before the city was built.”
    “I understand.” Mayor Hobbs brushed at his clothing.
    She chuckled. “There is a shower behind you to the left. I had a chance to explore earlier. If you want to change clothing, there is another panel on your right. He was tubbier and shorter than you, but they will do in a pinch. Would you like me to see if one of your voters can find you something?”
    He opened the panel with the previous mayor’s clothing. “Please. It looks like a peacock barfed in here.”
    She chuckled at the image and headed out the door while he headed for the shower and started scrubbing.
    The guards on the outer door surprised her. “Your new mayor needs clothing that fits.”
    One of them nodded and trotted away. The remaining guard stared at her. “You are really causing the rain right now?”
    She shrugged. “Everyone has their talents. That is one of mine.”
    “You