Does the sun move in Hell? Tradition and the dictates of honor demand that there be no escape attempt or resistance until the sun's crossed the horizon twice. It didn't look like it, and she'd tried to track it. No sunrise, no sunset. She had no way to know.

She could ask the witch. She won't.

That being said, she had every right to declare a breech of conduct, preferably from safety and enough distance to be free. Her hand still ached and ever so slightly bled, the cut refusing to heal. The fragment of Giriel's shirt that bandaged it had long since been stained crimson. Not a deathblow at all, one she could persist through for a long time yet, but enough of a disadvantage to want to wait before she was in a better situation to leave. She didn't know what Uusha'd do, didn't know what that apprentice knight that Uusha also appeared to be keeping prisoner would do. Didn't know how to get home without the witch and that one rankled. Didn't know why the cut on her palm kept bleeding. Does a wound born of betrayal not heal in Hell? It would make a degree of sense, but she doesn't know. She has no way to know.

She could ask the witch. She won't.

So she's been marching in that line, one hand holding Naji's leash, the other pressing the bandage into her palm and occasionally dripping a drop of blood. She can endure this. She can walk the rest of them into the ground if need be. The only one it'd even be close is walking on four in her true form and carries an exhausted half-god on her back.

So when they emerge into the ruins of Kingkiller Castle, the major difference here is that she's slogging through mud instead of sand, and instead of there being no water, there's too much. Even then, that took a minute to realize, and it was the smell of water more than anything that got her to look up and look around.

She missed the start of the ambush, but she has been walking for three days. Cut her a little slack.

When the crossbows and pikes do show, however, she changes course, heading straight for a squad near, but not next to, the command group, with the signal fans and mirrors. Approach nice and slow, hands out to her side: see, I'm not a threat. Get close enough to be able to speak and not be overheard.

"The bee is in the lavender
The honey fills the comb,
But here a rain falls never-ending
And I am far from home."

She hated that poem and so Cathak Agata had gone and made half of it her passphrase. The soldiers shift, immediately, pike-line reforming with her on the inside, and she relaxes, just slightly, for the first time in weeks.

"Capture, don't kill, if you can. Gold-level target is..." she squints. "The one Cathak already has. Next high priority threat is the antler-horned one. Any you capture, bind, gag, and hold for debrief." A salute in response, and she moves away to watch the fight, two soldiers breaking off to flank her.

Gold level means that the soldiers will die, if needed, to keep Melody. Sorry, Han.