Though Merrill honors her side of the bargain, the Keeper does not, and instead, gives it to Hawke for safekeeping, leaving Hawke with the choice to either give the Arulin'Holm to Merrill or deny her the tool.ДЄfter another three years since the invasion of the Qunari, Merrill finds an alternative to fixing the still-inactive Eluvian, regardless whether Hawke gave the Arulin'Holm to Merrill or not. Marethari tries to use this to coerce Merrill to abandon her research on the Eluvian, and return to the clan Merrill adamantly refuses. She discovers that Marethari had warned her clan that she might potentially bring back the darkspawn taint.

After killing the Varterral and returning to camp, Merrill inquires as to why Pol was so afraid of her. While exploring the Varterral's lair, they run into Pol, who flees in fear at the sight of Merrill, straight to the Varterral itself. Reluctantly, Marethari requests that they slay a Varterral that had killed many of their hunters, as the deal for the dagger. As they confront the Keeper, she calls upon vir sulevanan, the right of every Dalish to claim any property or artifact of the clan in exchange for a service.

Three years have passed since Hawke joined the voyage to the Deep Roads, and Merrill seeks Hawke's help in facing Marethari to request a special dagger to help complete the Eluvian. However, while staying in Kirkwall, her use of blood magic puts Merrill at odds with Anders and Fenris. Initially nervous when arriving in Kirkwall, Merrill finds lodging in the city's Alienage and joins Hawke's party. Marethari explains to Hawke that Merrill had decided to leave her increasingly hostile clan to learn more about the outside world and continue her studies into restoring the Eluvian. The ritual entails the resurrection of Flemeth, as a portion of her essence is revealed to have been embedded in the amulet. In the rite, Merrill recites the song In Uthenera, a poem for the departed. When Hawke arrives at the Dalish camp in Sundermount, she takes part in a ritual that Hawke is to perform on a mountain-top altar. She argues with Marethari that her efforts to learn blood magic were necessary towards the restoration of the Eluvian, and ultimately the survival of the Dalish with the Keeper publicly opposed to her efforts, the clan turns against her. As she lacked the necessary amount of lyrium to cleanse the shard with ordinary magic, she used blood magic to amplify her power so she could succeed this spell seemed to be utilized in the Dalish Origin to help the Warden deal with the taint. Her efforts to construct an Eluvian-a combination of her ardent lack of interpersonal skills and her pragmatism-caused her to turn to blood magic, which she learned from a pride demon imprisoned and sundered from the Fade atop Sundermount. Merrill asks Marethari for help in cleansing the shard of the taint, but the Keeper refuses.

She studied the lore on the Eluvian, and extrapolated information from the shard. Following the events surrounding the disappearance of Tamlen, Merrill has kept a fragment of the Eluvian in the old ruins to cleanse it of its taint.

Dragon age 2 romancing merrill