Ten

Ten is a female Irva, and one of the crew members of the Manta. She is the closest companion of Valentine, and is fiercely protective of him.

Early Life
Ten was born in AY 2980 to parents of high status within the Empire. Though she was taught from an early age that, as an irva, she was better than the other species, she began to question that mentality as she grew older and a wedge was formed between her and her parents. At the age of ten, she left home and was taken in by her uncle, Pragley Rok. Together, they ran a farm on the planet Jantii where they grew and harvested okinlas.

First Impressions
In AY 2998, she and her uncle watched a Cell ship crash into their fields. Within the wreckage, they found an unknown alien who gave his name as Valentine. He told them he was a human, but neither of them had ever heard of such a thing. Likewise, he had no memory of his past and knew nothing of what an irva was either. When they brought him to a Sentinel so it could scan him and tell them where he came from, it latched onto his wrist and burned the mark of Eden into his wrist. Prag began to interrogate the boy, but Ten rose to his defense and calmed the tension between the two. In the end, Pragley invited Val to join their small family and adopted him as his own.

An Aggressive Reunion
Over the next two years, she and Val came to be best friends as the boy searched for meaning in this new life that had been given to him. However, fate would eventually have plans for him other than farming; one day, a ship arrived near the farmhouse and an android calling herself Note emerged from it. The AI claimed that she and Val knew each other from their previous lives, and he was inclined to agree with her, given what little memory he had. Ten was there as the two of them traded stories of where the other had been over the last two years. When Prag revealed that he had been keeping Val at the farm because he believed the boy to be dangerous, Ten was the one who kept the peace once more. Prag went on to tell Val about his former job of searching out Architect ruins and technology for the Empire, and how he found a temple in the Umbra that was unlike any he'd ever seen. Before he could finish, however, the Cell managed to locate Val through tracking Note, and blew up the farmhouse in an explosion that killed Prag. The surviving trio was able to make it off Jantii and escape the Cell on Note's ship, watching as the Sentinels arrived in the sky and began to repel the Cell.

Building a Team
The three of them travelled to the Mercantile in an effort to evade the Cell. Ten nearly broke down, lamenting the loss of her uncle, but Val quickly comforted her and told her they'd be fine so long as they were together. Her courage renewed, Ten joined him and Note as the latter told them they needed to find protection in the form of a bodyguard. Journeying to Straxe Plaza, they found a bank with access to Spec-Net and Ten withdrew funds while Note analyzed potential candidates on the Shadow Market for their bodyguard. Eventually satisfied with one, the android set up a meeting and had Val and Ten follow her to their next destination.

Entering a cantina, the trio met with the contact; a kugraw mercenary named Niles. While he was initially rather abrasive and disbelieving of their claims, he eventually agreed to protect them to the tune of sixty thousand credits. When he heard that Val was experiencing hallucinations and lapses in consciousness, he suggested bringing the boy to a friend of his that lived in the Scrubs, an exodeist scientist.

Leading the other three through the Scrubs, Niles brought them to the makeshift abode of his friend, Hopes Quixotically. Informing her of the fact that Val was a completely unknown species and was experiencing visions, Quix immediately became curious. Studying both Val and Note, Ten waited with Niles for the exodeist to deliver her verdict. Eventually, Quix declared that they were undergoing 'Mnemonic Synthesis', a concept where two different sets of memories, their previous ones and their current ones, were merging and trying to join messily in their heads.

With no clear answers relating to their origins, Val declared that he would be venturing into the Umbra to find the temple that Prag had told him about. Ten was the first to join him, telling him that there was no way she was going to let him go alone. As the others joined in too, Niles told them that they would need a Vaulter if they were going to explore Architect ruins.

While Niles and Val set off to recruit the Vaulter, Ten, Quix, and Note went shopping for new clothing for Val and Ten, as all of their possessions had been destroyed on Jantii. Quix fabricated clothing to Val's specifications, and Ten and Note discussed the implications of the few memories Note still had.

Meeting back at one of the Mercantile's dockyards, Ten saw Val and Niles waiting with two newcomers, the team of Vaulters that would be helping them find the temple; a nox, Isaak, and a vett'iri, Chellor. The latter expressed outrage at working alongside an exodeist, but Niles immediately shut him down. With everyone ready for their departure, Niles introduced the crew to his ship, the Manta. Once they'd all boarded, the new crew of the Manta set out to find the temple hidden in the Umbra.

Personality
Ten is compassionate and empathetic towards others, something rarely seen for others of her race outside of the concern for members of their own species. She is fiercely protective and loyal as shown by her friendship with Val, and refuses to abandon those she cares about.

Trivia
• Ten has three syllables in her name, but refuses to share what they are.

• In the original draft of the first book, Ten's name was 'Bo'. This name has since been used for the ruling family of the Irvagaleni Empire.

• She was intended to be killed off in the same attack that killed Prag, but instead became a main character because she was so well-received by readers.

• Some readers have speculated that Ten is the 'missing princess' of the Irvagaleni Empire, though there's no solid evidence to back up this theory.