title: The Secrets of Topa: Grandmother's Story
author: Morning Sun
description: Morning Sun is a storyteller who sees events in her mind's eye and is often astounded by outcomes. The former registered nurse and current business owner lives in a small town in West Texas where she serves as matriarch of her family and provides spiritual readings.
zlib_text: ## **1 – Tragedy**
  
  
  
  
  
  The morning sun shone.
  
  
  
  
  
  Dew bejeweled the lakeshore grasses, and the calls of nesting shatra birds
  carried sweetly on the breeze. Lady Mara of the Acoma savoured the air, soon
  to give way to the day’s heat. Seated in her litter, her husband at her side
  and her two-year-old son, Justin, napping in her lap, she closed her eyes and
  breathed a deep sigh of contentment.
  
  
  
  
  
  She slipped her fingers into her husband’s hand. Hokanu smiled. He was
  undeniably handsome, and a proven warrior; and the easy times had not softened
  his athletic appearance. His grip closed possessively over hers, his strength
  masked by gentleness.
  
  
  
  
  
  The past three years had been good ones. For the first time since childhood,
  she felt safe, secure from the deadly, unending political intrigues of the
  Game of the Council. The enemy who had killed her father and brother could no
  longer threaten her. He was now dust and memories, his family fallen with him;
  his ancestral lands and magnificent