I tried pickpocketing him in the same savegame, and the gem did show up in his inventory. I also tried lockpicking the gate, teleporting passed it - the gem showed up normally in both cases.

I said there might be more to it because somehow I was thinking it's not required to get the gem and open the talking doors, but then I remembered you need to get the book from in there. Unless you don't need the book either, to progress. I was thinking there's a chance this is an intended "thing" rather than a bug. Sounds far-fetched, but you never know.

Could be it's really just a bug. Whatever triggers the spawning of the gem got skipped for whatever reason.


"We make our choices and take what comes and the rest is void."