Ice and Chitin Summary . Note : This book is known as " Ice and Chiton " in Morrowind . Content . The tale dates to the year 855 of the Second Era , after General Talos had taken the name Tiber Septim and begun his conquest of Tamriel . One of his commanding officers , Beatia of Ylliolos , had been surprised in an ambush while returning from a meeting with the Emperor . She and her personal guard of five soldiers barely escaped , and were separated from their army . They fled across the desolate , sleet - painted rocky cliffs by foot . The attack had been so sudden , they had not even the time to don armor or get to their horses . " If we can get to the Gorvigh Ridge , " hollered Lieutenant Ascutus , gesturing toward a peak off in the mist , his voice barely discernible over the wind . " We can meet the legion you stationed in Porhnak . " Beatia looked across the craggy landscape , through the windswept hoary trees , and shook her head : " Not that way . We ' ll be struck down before we make it halfway to the mountain . You can see their horses ' breath through the trees . " She directed her guard toward a ruined old keep on the frozen isthmus of Nerone , across the bay from Gorvigh Ridge . Jutting out on a promontory of rock , it was like many other abandoned castles in northern Skyrim , remnants of Reman Cyrodiil ' s protective shield against the continent of Akavir . As they reached their destination and made a fire , they could hear the army of the warchiefs of Danstrar behind them , making camp on the land southwest , blocking the only escape but the sea . The soldiers assessed the stock of the keep while Beatia looked out to the fog - veiled water through the casements of the ruin . She threw a stone , watching it skip across the ice trailing puffs of mist before it disappeared with a splash into a crack in the surface . " No food or weaponry to be found , commander , " Lieutenant Ascutus reported . " There ' s a pile of armor in storage , but it ' s definitely taken on the elements over the years . I don ' t know if it ' s salvageable at all . " " We won ' t last long here , " Beatia replied . " The Nords know that we ' ll be vulnerable when night falls , and this old rock won ' t hold them off . If there ' s anything in the keep we can use , find it . We have to make it across the ice floe to the Ridge . " After a few minutes of searching and matching pieces , the guards presented two very grimy , scuffed and cracked suits of chitin armor . Even the least proud of the adventurers and pirates who had looted the castle over the years had thought the shells of chitin beneath their notice . The soldiers did not dare to clean them : the dust looked to be the only adhesive holding them together . " They won ' t offer us much protection , just slow us down , " grimaced Ascutus . " If we run across the ice as soon as it gets dark - - " " Anyone who can plan and execute an ambush like the warchiefs of Danstrar will be expecting that . We need to move quickly , now , before they ' re any closer . " Beatia drew a map of the bay in the dust , and then a semicircular path across the water , an arc stretching from the castle to the Gorvigh Ridge . " The men should go the long way across the bay like so . The ice is thick there a ways from the shoreline , and there are a lot of rocks for cover . " " You ' re not staying behind to hold the castle ! " " Of course not , " Beatia shook her head and drew a straight line from the castle to the closest shore across the Bay . " I ' ll take one of the chitin suits , and try to cross the water here . If you don ' t see or hear me when you ' ve made it to land , don ' t wait - - just get to Porhnak . " Lieutenant Ascutus tried to dissuade his commander , but he knew that she was would never order one of her men to perform the suicidal act of diversion , that all would die before they reached Gorvigh Ridge if the warlords ' army was not distracted . He could find only one way to honor his duty to protect his commanding officer . It was not easy convincing Commander Beatia that he should accompany her , but at last , she relented . The sun hung low but still cast a diffused glow , illuminating the snow with a ghostly light , when the five men and one woman slipped through the boulders beneath the castle to the water ' s frozen edge . Beatia and Ascutus moved carefully and precisely , painfully aware of each dull crunch of chitin against stone . At their commander ' s signal , the four unarmored men dashed towards the north across the ice . When her men had reached the first fragment of cover , a spiral of stone jutting a few yards from the base of the promontory , Beatia turned to listen for the sound of the army above . Nothing but silence . They were still unseen . Ascutus nodded , his eyes through the helm showing no fear . The commander and her lieutenant stepped onto the ice and began to run . When Beatia had surveyed the bay from the castle ramparts , the crossing closest to shore had seemed like a vast , featureless plane of white . Now that she was down on the ice , it was even more flat and stark : the sheet of mist rose only up to their ankles , but it billowed up at their approach like the hand of nature itself was pointing out their presence to their enemies . They were utterly exposed . It came almost as a relief when Beatia heard one of the warchief ' s scouts whistle a signal to his masters . They didn ' t have to turn around to see if the army was coming . The sound of galloping hoofs and the crash of trees giving way was very clear over the whistling wind . Beatia wished she could risk a glance to the north to see if her men were hidden from view , but she didn ' t dare . She could hear Ascutus running to her right , keeping pace , breathing hard . He was used to wearing heavier armor , but the chitin joints were so brittle and tight from years of disuse , it was all he could do to bend them . The rocky shore to the Ridge still looked at eternity away when Beatia felt and heard the first volley of arrows . Most struck the ice at their feet with sharp cracking sounds , but a few nearly found home , ricocheting off their backs . She silently offered a prayer of thanks to whatever anonymous shellsmith , now long dead , had crafted the armor . They continued to run , as the first rain of arrows was quickly followed by a second and a third . " Thanks , Stendarr , " Ascutus gasped . " If there was only leather in the keep , we ' d be pierced through and through . Now if only it weren ' t . . . so rigid . . . " Beatia felt her own armor joints begin to set , her knees and hips finding more and more resistance with every step . There could be no denying it : they were drawing closer toward the shore , but they were running much more slowly . She heard the first dreadful galloping crunch of the army charging across the floe toward them . The riders were cautious on the slippery ice , not driving their horses at full speed , but Beatia knew that they would be upon the two of them soon . The old chitin armor could withstand the bite of a few arrows , but not the lance driven with the force of a galloping horse . The only great unknown was time . The thunder of beating hooves was deafening behind them when Ascutus and Beatia reached the edge of the shore . The giant , jagged stones that strung around the beach blockaded the approach . Beneath their feet , the ice sighed and crackled . They could not stand still , run forward , nor run back . Straining against the tired metal in the armor joints , they took two bounds forward and flew at the boulders . The first landing on the ice sounded an explosive crack . When they rose for the final jump , it was on a wave of water so cold it felt like fire through the thin armor . Ascutus ' s right hand found purchase in a deep fissure . Beatia gripped with both hands , but her boulder was slick with frost . Faces pressed to the stone , they could not turn to face the army behind them . But they heard the ice splintering , and the soldiers cry out in terror for just an instant . Then there was no sound but the whining of the wind and the purring lap of the water . A moment later , there were footsteps on the cliff above . The four guardsmen had crossed the bay . There were two to pull Beatia up from the face of the boulder , and another two for Ascutus . They strained and swore at the weight , but finally they had their commander and her lieutenant safely on the edge of Gorvigh Ridge . " By Mara , that ' s heavy for light armor . " " Yes , " smiled Beatia wearily , looking back over the empty broken ice flow , the cracks radiating from the parallel paths she and Ascutus had run . " But sometimes that ' s good . "