Well, he's not wrong…

"I mean, sure, but it kinda sounds like she already didn't like or trust the government of this place. I'm not sure that I'd be willing to buy 'oh, we'll only take a little' in that circumstance."

"Well, what were the circumstances? Did they send a really mean paladin lady to arrest you for crimes against the universe and then have a trial with crayon exposition and a scary angel that was actually your best friend's dad?"

"Honey, that only happened to us. But that's a good point. How did these guys approach you?"

Distracted from raving, the yuan-ti blinks, once with her nictitating membranes and once with her regular eyelids. "They sent their lady paladin to arrest me, but did not bother with a trial. Or... crayons."

"Aw man, that sounds super unfair! But the paladin lady we met didn't seem mean at all! And she wants to help all the sick people!"

"I mean, we did tell her before we knew basically anything about the situation that we were here to help. Under a truth spell. Plus, we haven't been here long enough to do anything resembling committing a crime."

"Yeah, but we also said that if someone was secretly doing evil stuff, we would stop them! And she basically said that was a good idea. If she was secretly doing evil stuff, wouldn't she get mad about that and want to kick us out?"

"Then you are fools," she hisses. "Good and evil are the words of warmbloods who desire that everyone live in fear of their gods and their steel. How can their own deeds be evil, if they are the ones who deem it so?"

Oh, good, Haley had almost forgotten the "insane" part.

"Okay, I totally know the type of guy you're talking about, and if it turns out this city is run by one of them that'll change our approach. But, like, I do care about not letting everyone here die horribly. We were only able to learn a basic overview of the situation before we got interrupted by having to deal with your buddy, who may have been trying to set you free but was also definitely trying to kill her."

She gestures in Desyyra's direction.

"So. I'm not interested in helping some can't-make-an-omelet types secretly sacrifice politically convenient eggs. But I'm not going to jump to conclusions, either."

"Well, if it turns out that they are going to take her heart, you can always res—"

Haley cuts in before Elan can helpfully inform everyone present about the special magic goodies in her possession.

"Right. I can eat the cost of raising you from the dead, if it comes to that."

The snakelady looks... wary. But that's an improvement from murderous.

"You are the kind of fools I may be happy of," she allows. "If I run, you will chase me. So for now, I will not run."

See, this is the kind of honesty Haley approves of most!

"Thanks, I genuinely appreciate that. What's your name, by the way? It'll probably get annoying to refer to you by species all the time."

"I am Gulnan, warmblood."

"Great. I'm Haley," she says even though she's pretty sure Gulnan is calling her that as a deliberate insult, since she and Elan introduced themselves.

Speaking of which:

"Hey, Elan, do you think it's a good idea for one of us to try and find someone who's in charge now? I'd feel kind of dumb if we ended up standing around for two hours while we could be doing things more productive than stand around for two hours."

"Well, the nice mousefolk who helped us went off, so I bet that he'll get back pretty soon. Or whoever he went to talk to, if he's busy somewhere else."