bend or break [PAST]

Anders does work a lot, doesn't he? Merrill says mildly. I don't think he sleeps. It would explain why he's always cranky. She's unable to summon anything nicer to say about him, just now -- she's used to Hawke's friends being dreadful to her, but it's a stabbing reminder every time that they don't want her to succeed; that she's either naïve and silly, or a magister in the making, to be the death of them all either way. Pol's death is still hanging too heavy on her. 

Merrill has never been that rude to friends of Hawke's. Insensitive to Fenris, perhaps, but only because she didn't understand, and she stopped pressing when he made that clear. She'd quite like to be returned the same courtesy, frankly. Maybe then she could call them her friends, too.

You're the only one who believes in me, she insists. Nobody else does. Not the Keeper, or my clan, or the others. And I will look out for you -- you know you can ask me anything.