Status Report

                                    

                                          
It had been three days since the golems found the king.
A single sentry walked up behind him as he worked.
The boy was whispering things to himself. Quiet "yes"es and "soon"s.
"Did you collect what we needed?" He said, his voice lacked any tone.
The creature's rock hand pried open with difficulty.
He adjusted his goggles and surveyed the contents.
A few leaves, some small miscellaneous rocks, some strange berries.
"Is this all you managed to collect?" He asked.
If he'd been talking to a real person they would've shivered at the complete lack of any emotion from the boy.
The golem just nodded.
The boy looked up at it. Eyes hidden by his goggles.
"You were tricked. He still has the crystal."
He grabbed the stray leaves and let the wind take them. 
Voices whispered all around him. They murmured, inaudible to everyone but him. Even then they seemed nonsense.
He looked over at the machine he was working on. Crystals gathered all around it. Jutting out of the ground like spires.
He stared into the surface of one of them, seeing something no one else could, before turning back to the golem.
"It's fine. We don't need him currently. Find him. Bring him here. Don't, kill him."
The golem nodded and lumbered away.
They were connected to a hive mind. The others would easily get the message now too and begin looking.
Crystals rattled and floated around him as he returned to the machine.
"We'll be ready soon. It's almost done." He spoke, seemingly to no one.
Thunder rumbled in the sky around them.
He turned back to the machine and kept working. Sparks were flying everywhere, highlighting Rowan's face in a bright blue light.