"I did have that fear: that I would catch the Blight. I covered my nose and mouth when I entered the place." She doesn't know what happens during the Joining, and doesn't know it's possible to die from it. To her, though the Wardens are brave and dutiful, and she's friends with several of them, she doesn't want to volunteer to be one. But if the choice is between dying of the Blight like Felix nearly did, or becoming a Grey Warden? Ellana would want to live.

"Maybe it does. I won't press her to tell me, but I'd hope she'd tell me if she needs space. I can give her that." There isn't much that Ellana wouldn't do for a friend. Shuffling out into the hall, bleary-eyed in the middle of the night? It wouldn't put her in the best mood, but she would do it.