Well it's not like he gave her much opportunity NOT THE TIME. Lady Celestia is in danger, apparently, there are higher priorities than arguing with the armoured knight about whose fault this is. 

"I can take you to where I last saw her, I think. It wasn't far from here." 

Rolith looks around at his...complete absence of knights to send on a rescue mission, actually, they're all busy. 

He hefts his warhammer onto his shoulder, and calls out to a passing servant, "You there! Go and tell Sir Preem he has command of the keep until I return." (The servant so addressed runs inside to presumably do that.) 

"Alright," he says, turning back to Saira. "Lead the way."

She can do that! Out of the gates, down the dirt track back the way she came, and then she came onto the track at...this bend? Probably this bend, there's a grassy path going off into the trees here right where she expects it to be. 

(Probability that this is a dream: decreasing. If this was a dream it would be either easier or impossible to find her way back. She's mostly not actively tracking her level of suspension of disbelief anymore, but this seems like a noteworthy update.) 

Meanwhile, Rolith is contemplating the probability that this is a trap of some kind. 

Points in favour: this is actually a really good way to convince him to leave the keep and follow a stranger into the woods without taking the time to gather a proper scouting party. The harmless-looking unarmed girl is clearly meant to get him to let his guard down and then lead him right into a bandit ambush. 

Points against: Lady Celestia was, in fact, supposed to be stopping by the keep today, and she has not, in fact, showed up. Even if the Darkwolf bandits managed to find out that she'd be passing through Oaklore Forest, it would stretch what he knows of their spying capabilities for them to know that Rolith had promised her a protective escort. One way they might have found out is if they've already captured Lady Celestia—in which case "captured by bandits" is actually right where he wants to be anyway. 

To Saira, he appears to be tramping along in silence, the same frown on his face that's been there basically the whole time. 

Suits her fine. 

"...I think it was around here." She stops and turns around, orienting herself how she'd have been walking the first time. "We came from that way, and I went this way towards the keep, and Lady Celestia and Twilly went...roughly that way." She waves her right hand back and forth in an arc; she's more confident about the general direction than the precise bearing. "I can't see the path they took, though." 

"Hmm." Rolith looks along the path in both directions, then sidles up to an unassuming shrub a few feet away and pushes it to the side with his hammer.

"Aha. Thought so. She meant that shortcut." 

There...might be a narrow trail there? Sort of? Certainly an adult human could fit between the trees and bushes if they wanted, and there are indications that animals have passed that way enough to wear the grass thin. 

Rolith starts off down the trail without waiting to see if Saira is following. 

She doesn't really consider not following. Even if it weren't for the long-ingrained instincts from her childhood telling her to stick with an adult when she's out and about, she wants to see where this new path goes and what's at the end of it. 

That's minor evidence in favour of "trap", but there continues to not be a lot he can do about that; he's hardly going to attack an unarmed civilian on suspicion alone. If she tries to stab him in the back he'll deal with that when it happens. If she succeeds at stabbing him in the back he'll quite frankly deserve it. 

Stomp stomp stomp through the undergrowth. If it wasn't for his friend being in danger and the possibility of an ambush the peace and quiet would be almost restful.

If it wasn't for her instincts still screaming at her that every rustle in the bushes and every tap of a branch against her skin is a mal trying to eat her, the peace and quiet would be almost restful. 

She tries to count her steps to keep track of how far they've come, in case something happens to Rolith and she has to find her way back by herself to get more help. 

That's probably the bandits Rolith mentioned! Sheeee's gonna freeze right here for now and try to figure out whether there's...actually anything she can usefully do to help Rolith other than staying out of the way and not alerting the bandits to his presence. Why didn't she think about this on the walk over, instead of stupid unhelpful things like counting how many steps they walked?

Now that they're not making noise of their own, the words come through clearer. 

"—I'll give you one more chance, priestess. Hand over the Black Dragon Box, and I'll kill you quickly." 

Aaaaa! What! That's not the sort of thing anyone says in real life! 

...oh, right, that's because she's still in hallucination fantasy land. But, accepting the premise of hallucination fantasy land being real enough that anything she does matters, Lady Celestia is being threatened with ?torture? and needs help, what can she do—

Well, what Rolith is doing is shouting, "Leave her alone!" and charging out to lay into the bandits with his warhammer. 

Saira doesn't have a warhammer. She has a clumsy little knife that she made in shop class and mostly uses to cut inanimate objects. 

...but she has more mana than she's had in months, and warding spells. Can she ward Rolith, or Celestia, or both? She stumbles forward to the edge of the clearing so she can get line of sight on them. 

Lady Celestia is sitting on the floor, her translucent shield bubble shimmering around her. The Black Dragon Box is on the ground a few feet away; she must have lost her grip on it, probably when she fell (or was pushed) to the ground. Twilly isn't immediately visible. 

A band of leather-clad thugs in face-concealing masks are fighting Rolith and losing, or in a few cases trying to batter down Lady Celestia's shield and failing. Most of them are armed with cudgels and similar, the medieval equivalent of a baseball bat with optional nails in it. They're not dressed perfectly identically, but there's a definite dress code and green-and-brown colour scheme.

The exception is a young man, maybe college-aged, with a fancy-looking sword. He's dressed like the other bandits, in green and brown, but minus the mask and plus a purple cape. 

"The box! Get the box, you morons!" he's yelling.

Celestia and Rolith look like they're holding their own. What if she wards the box. 

Saira stops where she is, still mostly hidden by the trees, and starts chanting under her breath in Hindi. Doing this from across the clearing will be more of a mana drain, but less of one than holding a second ward over herself. 

As the ward comes up, it looks like the box is now inside a bubble of water or glass, except that it's stronger than either. 

It goes up just in time. Two bandits make a grab for the box at the same time and bounce off the bubble. 

"Huh?!" 

"The priestess did something—"

"—nah, she didn't cast that, I was watching her—" 

"—they've got another mage?!" 

Uh oh.

What if she stays very still and quiet and doesn't do any more magic! (She keeps feeding mana to the shield, though, obviously.) 

Several of the bandits look around to try and spot the hidden spellcaster. 

That means they took their eyes off the guy with the big hammer. 

BONK. 

"Casting spells from the shadows is no way to fight. Come out and face me properly, coward!" sword-and-cape guy shouts, turning to try and spot Saira. 

Actually, casting spells from the shadows is the best way to fight. Clearly this guy has never been to the Scholomance, where cowardice is better known as "survival". She's staying right where she is, thanks. 

"Give it up, Drakath. Most of your men are down, and you can't beat me without them to hide behind. You're not winning here today." 

"Who do you think you are, telling me what to do? Alteon's little lap tog, here to put me back in my place? I am your rightful king, you lout! Hand over the Black Dragon Box and I'll consider letting you keep your position when I take back my throne."