The Gem of Nath
The Gem is the ancient optical object used in The Tree on the Hill to reveal the presence concealed within a photographed landscape. “The Gem of Nath” is a descriptive index title for this wiki; the story usually calls it simply the Gem.
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The object described
When Single dismantles Theunis's apparatus, he removes an amber-colored crystal cut at angles he finds difficult to classify. Contact with it produces a sensation he describes as warm and electric.
Earlier, Theunis compares its operation to that of a lens or prism. He also explains that a direct photograph cannot simply reproduce the experience it provides. A particularly receptive observer must instead attempt a drawing.
The text gives no dimensions, mineral composition or craft tradition for the crystal. Its unusual appearance and optical effect are evidence within the fiction, not a specification for a real device.
Sources: The Tree on the Hill — original text
The Chronicle’s account
The Chronicle of Nath connects the Gem with the high priest Ka-Nefer and with an attempt to resist the predatory shadow that appears during the Year of the Black Goat. The object makes possible a view that ordinary earthly sight cannot provide.
The old account reports its loss in connection with Phrenes's disappearance. Theunis states that it has subsequently been rediscovered and that he can obtain access to it.
The story leaves the intervening history largely empty. It does not narrate an excavation, establish a chain of named owners or explain precisely how Theunis recognized the museum object as the same Gem described in the Chronicle.
Sources: The Tree on the Hill — original text
The experiment in Croydon
Theunis borrows the crystal and mounts it in a long box with one of Single's photographs. His remarks about refraction and polarization frame the experiment as a manipulation of vision.
The object does not merely sharpen a blurred photograph. It permits a different organization of the pictured forms, revealing the apparent tree as part of an immense alien presence.
The experiment incapacitates Theunis. His subsequent account asserts that seeing the hidden form has repelled it, but the story does not provide a mechanical explanation of why perception has that effect or a second controlled experiment confirming the result.
Sources: The Tree on the Hill — original text
Preservation rather than destruction
Theunis gives different instructions for the crystal and the images. The photographs must be burned, while the Gem must be placed in his safe and ultimately returned. The danger of using it does not erase its possible future value.
Single follows the instruction to remove it without looking through the assembled apparatus. He is later overwhelmed by the drawing, which conveys only a fraction of what the Gem revealed to Theunis.
This difference gives the artifact a distinct role among forbidden objects. It is an instrument of defense whose use can injure the defender. Its preservation anticipates another cycle of danger, while the destruction of the images attempts to end the immediate fascination with the hill.
Sources: The Tree on the Hill — original text
References
- The Tree on the Hill — original text
The fictional narrative is evidence for what the story says, not proof of events in the real world.
At a glance
The Tree on the Hill
Reveals a concealed form through an optical apparatus
An amber-colored crystal with unusual facets
Borrowed by Constantine Theunis; secured for return