This isn't one of those stories where John Watson gets mistaken for a fool.

Well actually he does. But just for a little while.

The problem was John Watson wasn't actually John Watson at all because there has never been such a person.

…

In the beginning there were the Five. These Gods created the world and continued to watch over it and the people they had made to fill it.

Chaia, Huan, Lore, Yranna and Saru.

To their special favourites they gave the Gifts of magic, and would on occasion communicate with them. Most of those who wielded such Gifts joined the Priesthood in order to carry out the Five's work. Great Temples were built over the world where those committed to the Priesthood would come and learn to use their Gifts. The Five would appear to the Priests on special occasions to give guidance.

The Gods vowed to never directly interfere with the world, to allow the people free will and so it was through their Priests they would guide humanity. Unfortunately not even the Five could predict the future.

As is the way with most humanity though free will is taken advantage of. Some of those with the gift of magic wanted to use it for evil means and threw their gifts back in the gods faces. Once a group of such individuals plotted to destroy the Priesthood and the Temples because they wanted power for themselves and did not wish to serve the Five. Because of their vow not to interfere the Gods could not help and they could not take back the Gifts unless they were asked to.

They called themselves the Black Death. The Priests banded together to defeat them and were victorious but only after a great deal of damage had been done. Many of the Priests were killed in the process.

The Five declared that such devastation would not happen again. Each of the Five would choose a Priest that showed themselves over their lifetime to be the most selfless of people and give them Gifts beyond any normal Priest's imagining, the most important of which would be the gift of immortality. Their gifts would be such that the decision to elevate such a person would not be taken lightly and each God would therefore take it in turns to choose so that they could ensure that their new Priest was loyal to the Gods before the next was chosen. It would be catastrophic if a mistake was made.

They would call them the White.

…

Jayan was born in 1381 almost forty years after the events caused by the Black Death. He lived a simple life as a farmer's son before he discovered he had Gifts. He spent the next ten years working his way up the Priesthood's ranks until he was one of the High Priests.

The events that changed his life happened after he had celebrated his thirty seventh year. A rogue magician set fire to a village to the north of the Temple. After the Priests arrived they found the bodies of the villager blackened and charred. There was nothing left. The sorcerer that had caused it was destroyed.

Jayan saw this devastation and felt such sadness for the people and felt great hatred for the one that had caused it. On his way out of the village he came across a man, severely burnt on the very edge of death. He looked into the man's eyes and the suffering he saw within made him pause. His Healing Gifts were weak and his magic drained. He could not save this man. Instead he gave him the last of the water that he had been saving for the days ride back to the Temple. Jayan's throat was thick with smoke and was completely parched. He would be dying for a drink by days end.

The point was that even though the water would not save this man and it would be far more logical to keep it for himself, Jayan could not bear to see any more pain that day. So he gave up his water and then stayed with the man while he died so he would not be alone.

The next day the God's summoned all the Priest's to the temple and to the astonishment of all Chaia stepped forward and named Jayan the first of the White. The Priests had begun to believe that the White were an empty promise the God's had made and had never thought that one would be chosen.

As Chaia was the king of the God's he got to make the first choice and as such Jayan would be considered the leader of the other White when they were chosen.

The very moment Chaia had said his name Jayan could feel himself change. He could suddenly see things in ways he could never have believed. The strands of magic woven into the skin of the world were now visible to him and everything was brighter and fuller because of it. Wielding magic became easy he could pull it from the air with no resistance. He even developed the Gift of flight. Standing thousands of feet in the air he could see the curve of the earth and it was wonderful.

He vowed to serve the Five forever.

…

Dyara was next almost two hundred years later. She was stern and a little scary at times but Jayan adored her, perhaps in part because he now had someone with whom he could share the burden of being one of the White. Eternal and separate from the rest of the world he was beginning to wonder if he would be forever alone.

Then came Rian and Mairae in the centuries that followed. Four of the five had been chosen and things were good in the world with the White to hold the peace.

However by this point Jayan was over five hundred years old and he was beginning to feel it. The other White did not understand. They were content to watch the world turn but Jayan had seen too much death. Too many people that he watched grow old and die while he stayed the same. He was tired of being exulted as the closest one could get to the God's while on Earth. Jayan wanted to live but most of all he wanted to love.

So he left. He said goodbye to the others and walked into the world disguised as a normal man and left Jayan the White behind him.

…

'The White Return to London!'

That was the newspaper headline late in the summer of 2010. John Watson studied it for a long time sitting in his armchair in 221B Baker Street. His new flatmate Sherlock Holmes was sprawled across the couch and was, fortunately for John, staring into space absentmindedly causing a pen to rotate in mid air.

He hadn't been in the same country as the White for almost a century and now they were once again in the same city.

This would be interesting.

A/N Obviously this is a crossover with Trudi Canavan's Age of Five trilogy but only in the sense that the background stuff comes from there. If you haven't read it then I recommend it. I own neither the Age of Five books nor the BBC show Sherlock much to my displeasure. The story however is mine so hands off.