"... Curiosity is not a sin, my boy, but you should learn to be a little more cautious"

The Omnitrix wielder winced, almost risking dropping the book he was holding in his hands while he suddenly turning around with on his face the typical expression of a child caught stealing cookies.

Lady Neptune smiled gently, her arms relaxed at her sides and her fingers intertwined elegantly with each other.
"Forgive me dear" she said, her tone was soft, gentle, almost maternal "It wasn't my intention to scare you, but I have to say that I didn't expect to find you browsing in my personal library"

"I wasn't browsing around" the boy defended himself, placing the book on a table nearby "And ... and you didn't scare me!" he added proudly, although he was looking at her, literally, from the low to high.

-How tall is this woman?! - Ben thought, blinking.

Anyway he wasn't lying.
It wasn't his intention to snoop around, he just found himself in front of that library by pure chance.
After breakfast, Jades had noticed how sad and thoughtful Ben had become, so she proposed to take a tour of the palace to get him distracted a little.

The only problem was that after some time Jades had been called by other servants to carry out other tasks and consequently sha had to leave him alone before she could take him back to his room.

"Don't worry sir, it won't take long" Jades said, smiling encouragingly "You wait for me here, I'll be back soon"
About an hour had passed since then and there was still no trace of the young servant.

From there to thinking of looking around on his own the step had been short and in the end he was lost.

He had found the library about five minutes ago and he was fascinated by it.
It was a large circular room, with a very high ceiling painted entirely with what looked like some kind of astronomical map on which were marked stars, constellations and various planets.
This map continued all along the walls, almost giving the impression of being inside a planetarium.
Numerous pieces of furniture with shelves full of books were arranged in concentric circles up to the center, where there was a large multi-storey fountain from which water flowed so crystalline that you could be mirrored.

The alien's smile widened.
"Of course not, you just got lost I guess" Neptune replied "After all this is a very large building, full of rooms, halls and corridors"

"I was looking for Jades" Ben justified, looking around.

"Jades" the other repeated, closing her eyes for a moment, thoughtful "I see, I suppose it's my fault then"

Ben stared at her, frowning in confusion.

"She is a good girl, hard worker, affectionate and capable, but sometimes … she tends to be a little distracted" the Atlantean continued, giggling slightly "Maybe I should have sent someone else to take care of you"

"Wait, YOU sent Jades to me?!" the seventeen-year-old exclaimed surprised.

"I took Jades on my service from the first day she arrived at the palace" she said, ignoring the question "It took me a glance to understand that she wouldn't last long in the hands of any noble Incursean, so I decided to take her as my personal servant" she told " Five years have passed since then"

"Then why did you send her to me?"

Her expression became slightly sadder, while not losing her smile.
"I just wanted to be sure that you were treated as befits a guest, Benjamin Tennyson" the alien admitted sincere "In this palace the servants of "pure" Incursean race are not many, but those few who are here reveal their contempt for foreign species in a rather eloquent way"

"Oh …" Ben whispered, only to realize then that he hadn't asked her name yet.
She wasn't an Incursean but she didn't seem like a servant neither.

"I see he already knows who I am, but what did you say your name is?" he asked.

"I didn't say it" Neptune chuckled "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Boann Neptune, the eldest daughter of the royal house Neptune, on the planet Atlantis, and wife of emperor … well, FORMER emperor consider the circumstancee, Milleous"

"HIS WIFE?!"

Ben put both hands to his mouth the moment he realized he had screamed those words, which hadn't been exactly nice of him.

"I-I, uh ... I'm sorry, I didn't meant to ..." he stammered, feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment "I didn't think ...! I'm sorry for your husband!" he decided to say in the end, all in one breath, hoping he hadn't offended her.

Okay, it wasn't true that he felt sorry for her husband.
Milleous was a sadistic space dictator and being ousted from Attea and thrown into prison was the least he deserved as far as Ben was concerned, but his wife seemed nice.

In fact how the heck was it possible that such a beautiful woman was married to that hideous toad?

The Atlantean stared at him for several moments, appearing confused …

… then she just burst out laughing.

Her was what is said to be a healthy and long laugh, a hearty laughter, which echoed all along the library.
Ben would have sworn he had even seen a hint of tears in the alien's eyes.

"... Ahahahahah! Oh, for the seven mirrors of Kida" Lady Neptune took a deep breath, trying to recover from her attack of laughter "My dear, there is absolutely nothing you should be sorry for" as she spoke, she approached the fountain in the center of the library, sitting on the edge of it and inviting Ben to do the same with a wave of her hand.

"Seriously?" the boy said, approaching cautious.

"My husband has reaped what he has sown, nothing more, nothing less" Neptune merely said, finally returning serious "I don't rejoice knowing him in prison, because it's not in my nature to feel pleasure for the misfortunes of others, but that doesn't automatically means that this saddens me" she concluded "After all, considering everything he has done, how many innocents have suffered because of him, this is the least that could happen to him ... "

-He practically read my mind- the young man mentally agreed, amazed.
Then he sat on the edge of the fountain near Neptune, while maintaining some distance.

"So, did you find it interesting?" the Lady began after a while.

"Uh?"

"The book you were reading"
"Oh that!" Ben scratched his cheek with an finger "A-Actually, I wasn't reading it … I mean, not yet, I had just taken it when you entered"
"What was the title?"

"Al a-eruttircs ellud ... ercasss eucqua ...?" Ben said, with some difficulty in pronunciation.

A difficulty that seemed to surprise Neptune.
"That's strange, we talked all the time and you never had a problem speaking my language"

"Soooo that book is written in ...?"

"Atlantis" Neptune answered "How can you not know it if until now ..."

"Oh, it's because of the Omnitrix" the human explained, raising the wrist on which the device was tied "Or rather, the programm of universal translator installed inside it, it allows me to understand and speak all the existing languages, converting these languages into English when I listen to them and English in the language I need to make myself understood when I speak" he continued "Actually I'm speaking in English but the words you hear are in your mother tongue and vice versa"

"Fascinating" the other commented, impressed.

"Yeah, but the translator only works with regards to listening and speaking, the written word is different …"

"In that case, maybe I can tell you the title of the book" the Atlantean smiled understanding "You almost completely misspelled the pronunciation, but I think the words you saw were: Al aruttircs elled ercas eucua - The writing of the sacred waters"

"The writing of the sacred waters?" Ben repeated, instinctively turning his gaze to the fountain's mirror.

"One of my favorite books, a cornerstone of my people's culture" she said nostalgically "The myth wants it to have been one of the first written books of Atlantis"

"Really? What are it talking about?"

"About the history of this water" Neptune said, pointing to the fountain "The water from this fountain comes directly from my home planet and flows inside a closed system of pipes, so that it's not contaminated by normal water"

"How would it be different than other water?" Ben asked.

"It tells the truth" Neptune revealed with an enigmatic smile "Look …"

Having said that, she dipped her right hand in the water of the fountain.
Immediately something began to appear on the blue skin, a series of phosphorescent blue tattoos with a circular shape began to draw on the back of her hand up to the arm.

There where the skin was covered by water.

"… This water shows your true self, the soul beyond the flesh, It can heal or It can punish, It understands, It learns, It remembers ..."

"Wow ..."

"Do you want to try?"

"What? No, no, thanks, I'm okay" Ben shook his head.
Just because Neptune seemed nice that didn't mean Ben trusted her, not entirely, she was still a stranger.

Neptune pulled her hand out of the water and her skin immediately returned to normal.

"Anyway, I can teach you if you want" the Lady proposed, after a few moments of silence.

"Teach me?"
"To read and write Atlantis" she said "Although perhaps in your case it would be more convenient if I began to learn INCURSIS, the Incursean's language"

"Er, no offense but I'm not interested to learn the language of toads" Ben replied grimacing at the thought "If it were up to me I wouldn't even be here ..."

Neptune was about to respond but was interrupted by the arrival of a new character.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here!" suddenly a voice was announced, a male voice, attracting the attention of the two.
Ben stiffened, the tone was decidedly darker and more sinister than Neptune's.

"Who's there?"

"Rospus ..." the Atlantean simply answered, narrowing her eyes.

...

I thought about it for a long time and in the end I decided that yes, it may make sense that the Omnitrix recognizes the sounds and the "words" born from them, but it can't recognize the writing.
I think writing is more complex and always comes AFTER the spoken language.

Then in this way I wanted to give a sort of explanation (very approximate I admit it) to the fact that all the aliens in the Ben 10 series seem to speak English, when in reality it cannot be like this simple.
I mean it may be plausible that the alien plumbers or the ones in Undertown can speak the human language, since they live and work on Earth, and maybe also the aliens accustomed to travel a lot in our galaxy, but not ALL of them in the universe.

They must have their own language.

What do you think about it?
And what do you think about Neptune and Ben first meeting?

Next chapter we will finally see this Rospus guy, and a bit of Attea.

See you!