"I'm glad you didn't have to run into it," Merrill says, soft, pausing in her scrubbing for just a moment before she throws herself back into it. "It's horrible, isn't it?"

Rhetorical question.

"If I find any nice crystals, would you like to see them? I'm always looking for things like that and it'd be nice to know someone else appreciates them."

There Shale, it's like she's not even doing it just to be nice to you. She is, but she also isn't certain if the golem will take that as friendly or as an attempt at some sort of bribe.