Rain was falling heavily by the time the sun was going down, soaking Siara and Cullen through. They had been wanting to keep going for a bit longer, hoping to cover more ground and try to get more distance between them and Samson, but the rain put those plans on hold. There was absolutely no way that Siara would have coped with riding any further, even without the risks of riding in the dark and the rain. Her shoulders were hunched against the rain that pelted down on them, and a shudder passed through her body as rain trickled down her back. But she didn't notice the cold. She hated how wet she was - wet socks were a nightmare - but she didn't feel cold. The thought made her uneasy, but she did her best to ignore it, knowing that there were more important matters to concentrate on.

Cullen had fallen back to ride beside Siara, staying on her left in case something went more wrong with her foot. She could feel him keeping a close eye on her, but she did her best to ignore him, her eyes peeled for anywhere that they could stop for the night. Staying out in the open would not be a good idea.

"There," she said, pointing off the road slightly. In the distance, she could make out what looked to be an uninhabited house. She glanced around at Cullen, who shifted his horse slightly ahead so he could look past her, frowning as the rain hit his face. He looked back around at her after a moment.

"How far away do you think it is?"

"Further than I'd like it to be, but what other options do we have? We're in the middle of nowhere, there is no other shelter around here."

"Anyone could be there already," Cullen pointed out, looking back towards the building.

"Then we had better hope that they're friendly, because there is no way we can keep riding in this. This rain is getting heavier, not lighter. These conditions aren't safe for the horses, and I don't want a horse landing on me a few hours after a pile of rocks did."

Cullen sighed, nodding his head. He didn't look back at her, holding back for another second while Siara steered her horse towards the building. His horse fell into step a couple of paces behind hers, letting her take the lead until they reached their destination.

It didn't take too long, but the rain was falling even harder by the time they reached the building. As Siara had suspected, it had been long since abandoned.

"Well, looks like nobody's home," she attempted to sound more cheerful than she felt, but knew that her voice betrayed her. "Looks empty."

She was putting off dismounting and she knew it. There was no way for her to get down without jarring her ankle, and she was not looking forward to it. She moved to dismount, a scowl barely hidden on her face. Cullen was beside her in a second, one hand holding her horse's reins, the other resting on her forearm.

"Please, Siara," he said, his warm brown eyes meeting hers, "you don't have to do everything on your own."

A sigh escaped Siara before she could stop it, and she nodded. At least with Cullen helping her, her ankle would get jarred as badly. She carefully swung her leg over so she was fully facing Cullen, placing her hands on his shoulders. He reached out, his hands placed on her waist. Siara carefully pushed off, allowing Cullen to catch her and gently lower her to the ground. She didn't put her left foot completely down, resting her weight on her good ankle and letting Cullen support her for a moment while she gained her balance. Siara looked up into his face, his body shielding her from the worst of the rain. He didn't look too great himself, and Siara wasn't entirely sure if the glistening on his forehead was from the rain or from sweat, nor if the slight shiver that ran through his body was from lyrium withdrawals or the cold.

She cleared her throat, withdrawing her hands. Cullen quickly released her, taking a step away from her, rubbing the back of his neck. Siara couldn't help the small smile that twitched on her lips as he looked away from her. She turned away from him before he could see it, moving to grab her horse's reins. The horses needed tending to as much as she and Cullen did.

"I'll handle the horses," Cullen said, gently taking the reins from her. "We don't want your ankle getting worse. You go on inside. See if there's anywhere the roof isn't leaking."

"Your condition looked about as bad as mine," she retorted, glancing over her shoulder at him. She hadn't realised he was standing so close behind her, quickly looking away, instead turning her attention to the front door of the building. It was closed. With any luck, it wouldn't be locked. But their luck seemed pretty bad at that point in time, and Siara wasn't wanting to rely on it any more than she had to.

"I can walk. You're struggling to even stand."

"Details."

"Go inside, Siara. Rest. Get a fire going if you can."

She looked around at Cullen, holding his gaze for a moment before releasing a sigh. She rested a hand on her horse, using it to steady herself as she carefully stepped past Cullen towards the door of the building. There was no point in arguing with the stubborn bastard, though in truth she knew he was right. Every step that she took jarred her ankle a little, and pain flared its way up her leg and through her body. It took every part of her self control for her to get to the door. She reached out a hand and tried the handle, pulling a face as she did, hoping that it would open without any trouble.

The door swung open, and Siara released a relieved breath. She would have hated trying to pick the lock in this weather and with the pain coursing through her body. She carefully stepped inside, looking around the gloom. She couldn't make out a lot, unfortunately, but she could easily make out the large collapse in the room straight ahead of the entrance. One of the walls had almost completely fallen down. She turned back to where Cullen was collecting the reins of the horses.

"There's a fallen wall," she called back to him, pointing through. "You might be able to get the horses under shelter through there if it looks stable enough."

Cullen raised an eyebrow at her, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"'Stable'?"

Siara smirked back, shaking her head. She didn't say anything, though, instead turning and hobbling inside, keeping one of her hands on the wall at all times. She made sure she was looking down at the floor, avoiding any broken floorboards and items scattered around. There were no other sources of light in the house other than the fallen down wall and the front door. All the window shutters were closed. There were a few leaks in the roof, but fortunately there was nothing too bad. There was also a surprising amount of furniture left in the building. A few chairs were scattered around the floor, half the kitchen cupboards flung open. Clearly the place had already been raided. Perhaps that was why it was abandoned in the first place.

Siara glanced around, trying to get her bearings, spotting a fireplace nearby. She looked around a bit longer, a sigh slipping out as she bent down to grab some of the splintered wood scattered about the floor. She hobbled over to the fireplace, chucking the few pieces of wood she had into, glancing around to see if Cullen was anywhere nearby. Seeing that he wasn't, and that he must still be busy with the horses, she looked back at the wood. She stretched her hands out towards it and concentrated on bringing a flame to her hands. It wasn't a great idea, she knew that. After all, she still only had limited control over her magic. But she didn't have a flint and steel on her, and though she didn't feel cold, she knew that Cullen would when he finally finished up. And getting dry wasn't a bad idea.

A small flame flickered on the tips of her finger, and Siara smiled to herself, proud that she had managed. She reached out and set the flame to the wood, watching as it quickly caught, and put the flame on her fingers out in a single thought. Perhaps even Solas would have been impressed at her level of control. Siara scoffed as she settled herself into a more comfortable position. Solas wouldn't have been impressed. More likely he would have scolded her for taking such an unnecessary risk. Cullen could have walked in at any moment, bringing their packs with them. Somewhere among all their supplies there would surely have been a flint and steel. But Siara didn't really care. She was tired, she was wet, and her ankle hurt like a bitch. She wanted to dry off and get some rest. But there were other things she needed to tend to first.

She leaned forward, unlacing her boot before doing her best to ease it off, biting down on her lip as she struggled to keep herself from crying out as pain shot up her leg. She paused for a bit once the boot was all the way off, breathing heavily, leaning against a nearby toppled over chair. Slowly, she sat back up and rolled her legging as to the edge of where the red and blue marking began, just below her knee, and looked at her ankle. It was already swelling, and a rather beautiful shade of purple, but no bones had breached the skin. Thank the Maker for small mercies.

"How's it looking?"

She looked around as Cullen entered the room, his rain-wet armour shining in the golden firelight, doing her best to force a smile to her face. She shrugged, looking back at her ankle as Cullen sat down on the floor opposite her.

"It could be worse."

"May I?" he asked, motioning to her ankle. Siara hesitated, but nodded. Cullen reached out and carefully shifted her ankle, glancing up at her as she inhaled sharply. He immediately stilled, watching her carefully.

"I'm okay. You can keep doing… whatever it is you're doing."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, you can probably get a better look at it than I can," Siara shrugged, "though I doubt you'll know what to do any better than I do."

Cullen looked back down at her ankle, carefully turning it to look at it. Siara closed her eyes and did her best not to move or throw up whenever her ankle moved slightly.

"We shouldn't have ridden for so long," Cullen muttered, setting about binding it as carefully as he could.

"You're joking, right?" Siara opened her eyes, raising her eyebrow at the commander. "We needed to get away from there. There wasn't anyone capable of helping us there. You made the right call."

"Your ankle - "

"Hurts like a bitch and looks even worse. But at least I'm not surrounded by infected templars and Venatori. And if I get lucky, for once, then your sister will know of a healer. For now, let's just get some rest. We can worry about everything else in the morning." She gently withdrew her ankle once Cullen was finished binding it, motioning to the next room over where there was a bed. Cullen turned to see where she was looking.

"You should take it. You're injured."

"You need a good rest just as much as I do. We won't get anywhere if your withdrawals flare up, and that bed looks big enough for the both of us," Cullen looked like he was about to object, but Siara didn't give him the chance. "Help me up, would you? And if you jar my ankle, I'll punch you somewhere incredibly painful."

Cullen scoffed, but got to his feet before holding his hand out to her and helping her first to her feet, and then over to the bed. It was a strange feeling, to be sharing a bed with someone else, but with the fire merrily crackling in the hearth and the sound of rain falling on the roof, sleep washed over them both.